Maho Neko Jaeger, Dungeon Crawler 5
by LordsFire
Summary: No, you do not get a 'cute' name to go with your new job description. Yes, you do get new magical supahpowahs. Cybernetic enhancement and robotic minions may be included in the package. Brace yourself Dungeon Crawler, you're about to get a front-row ticket into what magical girls have to put up with their first day on the job. And no, you don't get a talking girl familiar.
1. Chapter 1

**AN:** So. I finally decided to start posting here on again, just over three years after my last post. I've been very active on Spacebattles during that time, but a while back I decided not to start posting this story here until it was completed. Well, it's been completed for a while now, and I'm finally getting around to posting it here. Be warned, this story suffers a bit from an excessively large cast.

((()))

Now presenting Mahou Neko Jaeger, a terrible name for a terrible story.

((()))

Why the _hell_ do I have paws?

No, seriously. Paws. They are not a thing that humans have. Or, for that matter, except in extremely rare cases (of which I have never been one in all of my twenty-something years), do they have _fur_.

Something twitches, attached to my butt, and I shiver as I realize that I have a _tail_.

Slow down, stop, deep breath. I rarely follow the cliche'd 'calm down' mechanism, but I do it not because of improved air circulation or something like that supposedly improving oxygen levels, it's nothing more and nothing less than 'break chain of thought A, so that chain of thought B can be deliberately formulated.' Which is why I suppose it's recommended to others as well.

Right. So.

First off, after taking stock of my other body parts, I appear to be a cat. Second off, I have a HUD, making me some sort of cyber-cat, and most of what it displays are things like 'Life Points-undefined,' 'Ki-undefined,' and 'Zeon, -undefined.' That last one is suggestive of something, but taking stock of my surroundings is more important.

First off, I appear to be on a beach. Worse, a _tourist_ beach, and though I'm suffering from some form of color-blindness, there are still _far_ too many women putting _far_ too much on display, and thus I promptly plant my face into the towel I'm laying on. Something seems off about what I saw (or something relating to it, beyond the color-blindness), but nothing was immediately threatening me as far as I could see, and my ears are giving me a _much_ clearer understanding of my surroundings as well, so it was safe to turn my attention to to my HUD, and possible meanings thereof.

It took a few seconds to learn how to manipulate the HUD; it was locked to my vision, whether my eyes were opened or closed, and regardless of which way it was turned. It's one thing to see something in the corner of your eye, it's another for 'where' you see it to turn along with your eye when you try to focus on it. I couldn't be certain, but I thought it most likely that it was a mental, rather than physical, overlay, which meant I had either some form of cybernetics ( _as a cat!_ ), or magic was involved. I wasn't ruling cybernetics out altogether, but _being a cat_ certainly suggested magic, at least unless I was a human brain transplanted into a cat body, somehow, in spite of the size differential.

That aside, it fairly rapidly became apparent to me, that much as I had suspected, the HUD had something to do with the Anima game system, and I was being prompted to 'level up.' Turning my attention to that, I began to mentally manipulate a series of options and menus, which rapidly revealed that I was in what amounted to 'character creation' for an Anima character, with starting level _eight_. Higher level than I'd ever gone in a campaign.

I took a moment to raise my head and look around cautiously, but no one was paying the solitary cat stretched out on a beach towel any real attention, so I turned my attention 'inward' again, and set to work.

((()))

By the time the Mizunos' had finished their stint in the water, it seemed that their cat had fallen asleep on one of the beach towels they had left on the sand. Having owned the 'pet' for some months, both Mizuno women were well-acquainted with the quirks of the feline, and saw little reason to disturb its sleep, when it likely wouldn't last long anyways. They were somewhat surprised however, when another pair of women, westerners of sufficient age gap to be mother and daughter, though lacking the resemblance usually shared by those of such a relations, approached them regarding their somnolescent feline.

((()))

I had literally impossibly high starting stats, and apparently I'd been granted three CP from disadvantages inherent to being a cat (colorblind, 'atrophied limb,' and mute), and one for having a Powerful Enemy, specifically, the Order of Yehuda. I'd thought that society was native to the Anima setting, so perhaps I was in a future version of said setting, where modern technology had been achieved. Regardless, that gave me a _lot_ of points to play with, even though I had apparently been forced to take The Gift and Access To Psychic Disciplines as Advantages.

So, if I was shoe-horned into the two of them anyways, I might as well go whole-hog, hey? I would do _all the things_. Especially considering that I had eight levels to play with; that opened up a _lot_ of potential.

First, I dropped three CP into Ki Recovery; it turns Ki-powers from a short endurance thing, where you can use them in meaningful quantities once, maybe twice a day, to a near-unlimited endurance source of buffs, or the ability to drop powerful 'bombs' every couple of minutes. Combining it with Psychic Powers, I would have _no_ shortage of long-term buffing and blasting ability.

Next up, Eternal Blood. There's nothing quite like being able to survive being stabbed through the head just as easily as you can being stabbed through the leg, not to mention needing something like 40% of your body mass actually destroyed before you die. Durability is nice.

The other things I wanted required more CP, so I picked out a trio of Disadvantages; Shamanism (2 CP), which required I associate a material component with each spell I cast and have it on hand, Psychic Consumption (2 CP), which made it so that if I tried to manifest a Psychic Power and failed, I'd take Life Point burn equal to the degree of failure, and Code of Conduct (1 CP). For me, spellcasting was usually a utility non-combat thing, so lack of components wasn't much of a worry, and the way I used Psychic Powers meant I pretty much never failed a conventional Potential check (mostly by very rarely making them), and since _I_ defined my Code of Conduct, it would pretty much never matter, unless I acted completely against my creed.

I'm not a perfect in keeping to my ethics all the time (I'm certainly human), but most of my failings in that regard are mostly damaging to myself. As a Christian, pursuit of perfection is essential, but Grace is at the core of Christianity, and thus failure is not the end of the world.

With more CP opened up, it was skill-grabbing time. With eight levels to start with, and more yet coming, buying the most expensive Skill Advantages was unquestionably the path to power, so I spent 3 CP on having the Creative skill group (Dance, Art, Music, Sleight of Hand, Forging, and Puppet-Crafting) increase by 10 per level, then did the same for the Intellectual skill group, (Animals (functionally Zoology), Appraisal, Herb Lore (Botany and some Chemistry/Medicine), History (ALL KINDS!), Magic Appraisal (sense/conceal/discern magic being used), Medicine (Human Anatomy and the skill for M.D.'s), Memorize (REMEMBER ALL THE THINGS), Navigation, Occult (knowledge of all supernatural things), Science (everything not in another skill), Law, and Tactics.)

That was eighteen skills, each would get +80 from the two 3 CP traits, each of those +80 bonuses was worth 160 DP, for a total of 2880 equivalent DP value. A level 8 character gets 1300 DP to spend directly; in other words, buying up those skill Advantages gave me the equivalent of more than twice my level worth in DP. Skill Advantages are often underestimated by players, but they're _massively_ useful if you're going to get past the first few levels, only pay off more and more as time goes on, and are really the best way to play versatile skill-monkeys. So I took my last Creation Point, and stuck it in a +10/level bonus to Notice, since situational awareness is damn important and all. Slight understatement there. I set aside thirty DP to give me basic 'you have no non-proficiency penalties' level of ability in up to 15 of those skills I particularly wanted.

That tied up Creation Point distribution, giving me a very well-rounded ability set, with lots of potential. After that, came the issue of leveling. I decided to take a variation on my favorite build, Mentalist then Tao, and instead build Wizard Mentalist into Tao. Usually, between state requirements and CP requirements, mixing a third branch of 'power' in was functionally unworkable, but with an _eleven_ in every stat to start with, and the extra CP I had available (as well as no choice in picking up both Psychic _and_ Magical powers), there was no reason not to exploit it as much as possible.

So, seven levels of Wizard Mentalist, and then one of Tao, to kick things off. Eleven Power and seven levels of Wizard Mentalist gave me a Zeon reservoir of 850; which was enough to cast pretty much anything I wanted to, at least that was _possible_ for me to cast based on an 11 Intelligence, or twelve, or any number I was really like to have any time soon, anyways, so I didn't buy any more Zeon with DP. Instead, I purchased five Magic Accumulation (MA) Multiples for 250 DP, so that I could charge up 60 Zeon per turn to actually _cast_ spells. It was a modest amount of MA to have; total Magic Accumulation was based on a number derived from your Power characteristic multiplied by your MA, which was one base, plus number of multiples bought.

I had a _plan_ in buying five multiples specifically; at 20 Power, the highest attainable score in any Characteristic, base MA was 35, meaning that a total x6 multiplier would get me up to 210 MA. Magic was the lowest-endurance and most versatile path to power in Anima, with anything more than minor spells generally taking multiple combat-turns to charge up, then 1/4th to ½ of your total Zeon reserve to cast, depending on level. Those spells, however, tended to be absolutely decisive in fights. The game designers behind Anima recognized that mages needed to have _some_ endurance however, and thus, they included the Innate Magic system, which allowed a character to do two things, based on their MA. First, it allowed them to cast one spell per turn without spending any Zeon (though if they did so they couldn't accumulate Zeon for active casting that turn), and second, it allowed them to keep one spell passively sustained via Innate Magic. The catch, was that while any spell of significant consequence cost 200-1500 Zeon, not counting the epic-level spells, the table for Innate Magic topped out when you had 200+ MA, at allowing you to Innate Cast spells worth _90_ Zeon without actually spending Zeon.

There was a CP advantage to raise your Innate Magic potential higher, but it was expensive, and I didn't have it. Basically, unless you were a high-level caster, you could only cast what amounted to cantrips out of Innate Magic; Magic isn't _supposed_ to be the branch of power you use for high-endurance casting, that's what Psychic Powers are for, but with Innate Magic, you did get _some_ endurance ability. Since I was using an over-powered and funky build, I only really intended to use magic for buffs that just weren't available anywhere else, and I was really just setting the foundation for doing that properly later, once I was able to up my Power to 20. Oh, a final important thing about Magic Accumulation? That was also how much Zeon you recovered _per day_. Sixty Zeon recovery means I get sixty Zeon back every day, whereas the _absolute cheapest_ spells cost 20-30 Zeon to cast, and mid tier cost 100-300 easy. Magic is not high-endurance.

Like I said, I had _plans_.

The magical aspect of DP expenditure taken care of for the time being, I moved onto Psychic Powers. That was easier; I spent 100 DP on the 'Module' that lets you use your regular Attack and Defense stats instead of Projection with Psychic Powers, then dumped as many DP as I could (600) into buying Psychic Points (PP), netting me 60 of them. Psychic Powers are pretty simple to learn and use (though the chapter on them isn't the best written), and as such, are something I usually recommend to new players. You have your base 'power level,' called 'Psychic Potential' determined by your Willpower (more can be bought for DP, to a point), you buy your Projection for your 'skill' with DP, and learn various Disciplines for the 'what' you have that skill with by spending 1 PP per discipline, and then 1 PP per power, pretty simple. There's a few more bits to it than that, but it's still all based around that simple core.

Not spending anything at all on Psychic Projection gave me a _lot_ of versatility in power selection (especially with the 7 extra I got for 7 levels of Wizard Mentalist), and with the module I'd bought, I'd be making up for that lack soon enough. There were a whole host of Psychic Disciplines, but even with that, nowhere near as many Powers as Spells, and I knew them a lot better, so making my selection was quite a bit easier; I picked up the following:

The Teleportation discipline, with the Defensive teleportation, Major Teleport Self, Major Relocate Object, and Teleport powers.

Electromagnetism, with the Control Electricity, Read Electrical Impulses (detect electrical shit), Magnetic Accelerator (Rail Gun), and Control Electrical Impulses (control people via their nerves) powers.

Physical Increase, the buffing discipline, with the Increase Ability (Dex/Agi), Increase Strength, Increase Reaction (Initiative), Regeneration (healing), and Total Increase (buff _all_ physical characteristics) powers.

And the Psychokinesis discipline, with the Shield, Armor, Flight, and most importantly, _Atomic Restructuring_ powers.

In a fantasy setting, where science is at late Renaissance level at best, Atomic Restructuring is powerful, and potentially a game-breaker, because it lets you literally restructure anything on the atomic level, turning it into any element on the periodic table (or combination thereof) that you want. The only law maintained is the conservation of mass, which has interesting applications all by itself; still, turning sand to steel, porcelain to armor-grade ceramics, or lead to gold.

Or, with modern scientific knowledge, to Uranium, pure Potassium, even Chlorine Triflouride. Boom.

I had no qualms whatsoever about doing silly, _silly_ things with such a power should the situation seem to merit it. In the Anima setting there's a secret magical merchant society that exists specifically to keep people from breaking the gold-based economy with such things (even if the magical spell to turn any substance to gold is lower level and easier to cast), so I'd have to keep an eye out of they were present here.

A well-rounded starter selection of Powers made, I spent 28 of my remaining PP on raising my base Psychic Potential by +70, doubling the 70 I got from my 11 Willpower, then bought four Innate Slots (basically buff slots you stick a power in to passively maintain) for 2 PP each, leaving me with 9 PP. I stuck Increase Reaction and Increase Ability (Dexterity) into two of the slots, temporarily investing 2 of my remaining PP to improve the Dex buff, then filled the other two with Psychokinetic Flight and Psychokinetic Armor, buffing Armor by another 2 points to get me roughly the amount of protection a full suit of steel plate mail would give.

An acceptable 'starter' level of protection, and the 5 PP I had left floating around could be 'spent' to temporarily give me access to powers I didn't know in a discipline I had access to, buff a power I was manifesting at the moment, or increase my offensive or defensive skill with them. An acceptable 'starter' set of flexibility to go with my 'starter' powerset.

Moving on from Psychic Powers...

That actually didn't leave a whole lot in the realm of DP expenditure. With the hit to DP taken for switching classes at level 8, I only had 260 left to throw around; I put 250 of it into buying up my Attack and Dodge, balancing it more towards Attack, then the last ten into learning the Basic and Advanced degrees of Tai Chi, paid for at quarter cost due to me taking it both as a Tao, and in place of my 'free' starting weapon proficiency. It didn't offer particularly impressive damage, or any attack/defense bonuses, but it _did_ give me another 30 Martial Knowledge to work with.

So; Martial Knowledge and Ki Abilities. Bread and Butter of a Technician, and the Butter to a Tao's martial arts Bread; I had 10/level from Wizard Mentalist, 30 from my one level of Tao, and another 30 from Tai Chi, giving me a total of 130, pitiful for a level 8 Martial Artist, but pretty solid for picking out a 'starter' package. With Ki abilities, the problem, of course, was that I had _far_ more options available than I had Martial Knowledge to buy them with; deciding what to actually buy was hard.

Well, starting with Use of Ki was absolutely essential; not only was it the Ki ability required for _every_ other Ki ability (unless the character was planning on using Nemesis instead), but as I'd picked up Tai-Chi at Advanced, it was locked in as a prerequisite choice to acquiring that level of skill with Tai Chi. So, down 40 MK, and on to the 'real' choices I got to make. I could go for shapeshifting abilities; but I could do that with magic too. I could go for characteristic augmentation, combat/mobility buffs; I could start buying up Multiplication of Bodies, play Naruto and abuse it, be in more than one place at a time, I could pick up Improvised Combat Techniques for a 'grab bag' of Ki powers; I could buy a _lot_ of things.

It was hard to choose, but in the end, I picked up Ki Control, the most common prerequisite, then Improvised Combat Techniques, and Physical Dominion, which gave a +10 to Physical saves, and was required for shapeshifting or clone techniques. The Improvised techniques would let me throw a big ol' bonus on attack or defense, to make up for my low numbers relative to level, and Physical Dominion would set me up for later, whatever it was I decided to go after.

In the meantime, I dumped all 75 of the Path knowledge for Magic my Intelligence gave me into Creation, so I could use the level 72 spell 'Metamorphism' to change shape into something more capable of interacting with humans than a cat, leaving only skills for me to finish out.

Skills were fairly straightforward; every level in Anima (after the Core Exxet revisions), a character gets to pick 5 skills to drop +10 points in, then picks one Physical and one Spiritual skill, and adds the modifier of the associated Characteristic to said skill. These are 'natural' bonuses, and cannot exceed 100 total for any skill; anything past that comes from DP expenditure or CP Advantages giving bonuses, which have no cap.

I'll not bother to recite all the mind-numbing details here, but what I _will_ include, is that I made sure to have solid skill investments in Stealth, Hide, Notice, and Sleight of Hand. Being a sneaky cat can only go good places, situational awareness is essential, and who _doesn't_ want to be able to juggle or slap arrows/bullets/spells out of the air? After that, I distributed things around the assorted knowledge and creative skills, giving myself a decent mix, and I was, more or less, ready to go, hitting the 'button' that finalized my build.

((()))

"I'm sorry to trouble you," Lynette said, waving a casual greeting to the two Mizuno women in lightly accented Japanese, "But that cat bears a great deal of resemblance to one we lost some months ago; I don't suppose you could tell us where you found it?"

"My daughter found Jaeger," Saeko said, gesturing towards the feline, "Wounded on the streets of Tokyo about five months ago. Where did you lose your cat?"

"Fukui city," Lynette said, while Caitlyn dropped down to crouch beside Jaeger, "He ran off after trouble; I don't suppose that's something you've seen him doing that much?"

"We have," Saeko admitted reluctantly, turning to glance at her daughter, who was beginning to look quite dispirited, "I don't suppose you have any particular way of making certain whether or not Jaeger is your cat?"

"It's fairly simple," Lynette said with a nod, "Is he the largest cat in the world by about eight kilos?"

"That-" Saeko was interrupted by Jaeger abruptly shifting from 'cat-napping' to 'hyper-alert predator' in the blink of an eye, leaping to his feet and arching his spine as he turned to face Caitlyn, whose scent had just reached him in spite of her being downwind.

((()))

A near-euphoric sense of _empowerment_ flowed through my body, my mind, my soul, my very _essence_ , once 'the button' was pushed, and as it did so, I felt a mental shackle upon my memories being torn free, returning to me all of the memories which had been lost.

Chicago, where I met Cait and Lyn.

England, where I dealt with a painful version of 'The Wizarding World.'

Fuyuki City, where I dealt with the swiftest Grail War blitz I've heard of in _any_ reality, before losing all the personal power that I'd gained.

Tokyo, where I met Ami and the other Senshi.

The Arctic, and the Dark Kingdom.

Kota Kinabalu, where I instigated a battle during the eclipse, so as to...

I looked up, and saw that the eclipse was still in progress, though it had not yet reached the point of full coverage, wherein the Moon would fully shroud the Sun. Mere _hours_ had passed since my allies and I had torn up the streets of this city, attempting to defeat Metallia's unwilling thralls and their minions; a glance to my right showed the enormous battle-puppet I had used in the clash, propped up like a statue along the beach-front.

And I could smell _Werewolf,_ beyond that, a _familiar_ werewolf, almost right on top of me. Turning to my left revealed someone I'd not thought I'd ever see again, Caitlyn Gates, formerly of Chicago. Standing just beyond her, staring down at me, was Lynette Gates, adoptive mother of Caitlyn, and probably the single adult I personally had the most respect for in the world, primarily due to her dedication to both the physical and emotional well-being of others. She was a Medical Doctor who'd treated me on more than one occasion, but that was the _least_ of what she'd done for me.

Realizing the aggressive stance I'd taken in response to the flood of power and memories, I forced myself to relax, then carefully stepped forward to nuzzle Cait's hand in the closest approximation of a greeting I could think of on the fly.

"Well," Saeko said regretfully, "He definitely seems to recognize you."

I glanced backward towards the Mizuno's, seeing worry on Saeko's face, and Ami's posture steadily curling in on itself in a dejected slump; _that_ simply would not do.

((()))

Ami _tried_ to tell herself that it wouldn't be the end of the world if her cat was taken back by its _original_ owners, its _legal_ owners. She wasn't _completely_ alone anymore; she spoke sometimes with Hino Rei from the shrine, and she was tutoring Usagi-chan, who was so bubbly that it was _like_ having a friend, but-

A warm hand brushing awkwardly against her side pulled Ami from her mournful internal monologue, and she looked up to see Jaeger had seized the younger western woman's wrist in his jaws, and dragged her over to Ami, pushing the woman's hand against her flank.

"Jaeger-kun?" She breathed, bewildered by the feline's strange behavior.

"Looks like Boss here has gotten rather attached to you folks too," the young American woman said with a smile, before carefully extracting her arm from Jaeger, and offering it to Ami, "My name is Caitlyn Gates; thanks for looking after this troublemaker here."

"Ah!" Ami said, forcefully fighting down the instinctive stutter that tried to work its way out of her throat, hesitantly raising her hand to return the customary western greeting, "I am Mizuno Ami, pleased to meet you, Gates-san."

"Call me Caitlyn, or Cait," Caitlyn said, rolling her eyes slightly as she shook the younger girl's hand, before sitting down on the sand beside her, "Unless you're a _lot_ younger than you look, I'm less than ten years older than you, and I'm not big on formality."

"Arigatou, Caitlyn-san," Ami said, smiling shyly at the older (and _much_ larger) woman, "What brings you to Malaysia?"

"Vacation," The older woman said, before extending a hand towards Ami's mother, "I'm Lynette Gates, I'm a general practitioner who's been working on adding some specializations to my skill-set, and this is something of a vacation between bouts of working and schooling."

"Oh?" Saeko said as she shook the older woman's hand, her interest piqued, "I'm Mizuno Saeko, and I am specialized in Oncology and surgical treatment of Cancer, what do you focus on?"

"Trauma surgery, primarily," Lynette said with a grimace, before releasing Saeko's hand and plopping down beside her, "It's something I started to focus on before I left to Chicago, due to all the gang violence there, but I've started working with genetic diseases as well since I left."

"That's a rather large divergence," Saeko curiously, "Is there a particular reason for the large shift?"

"Two reasons, really," Lynette said with a faint smile, "First, both can be some of the least-treatable afflictions that a patient con suffer, depending on the magnitude of the problem, and second, while there'll never be a treatment invented that will give a permanent cure to the issue of trauma, there is the potential for annihilating all existing and future genetic disorders with the appropriate treatment, though developing such is intensely difficult."

"Being forced to learn a new specialization because there _aren't_ any more cancer patients isn't something I'd mind in the least," Saeko said with a faint smile, "How far into the field are you?"

"I don't know about you kid," Caitlyn half-whispered to Ami as the medical professionals began to delve deep into the technical lingo of their profession, "But I think I'd rather take a swim than listen to them geek out. Want to come with?"

Ami spared a glance down towards the water, and seeing that some of the other members of her tour group she actually knew were down there already, hesitantly nodded, before standing and following the American woman down to the beach.

((()))

I was more than a little surprised to see my two companions again, though with a bit more attention paid to details, it was pretty clear that the Werewolf involved in the fight against Metallia, though its pelt had been white for some reason, had to have been Cait, and I had seen Lyn skirting around the battlefield as well. It must have taken some fairly fearsome magics to let them track me across dimensional boundaries, especially given my altered form, and the nature of the world-between-worlds and its guardians.

That they had tracked me down regardless put a lump in my throat, even if I _was_ a cat, and that triggered hairball-ejecting instincts in my body. I ended up coughing a fair bit, but I didn't actually _have_ any hairballs in need of expectorating, so nothing came of it aside from a few moments of feeling awkward. With that out of the way, I turned my gaze onto the chatting doctors for a few seconds, before deciding it was time to stretch out and 'test' some of the powers I had available at hand. A lot of the things I was now capable of were _far_ too flashy to try out in a place so public as a beach, but a few were capable of being tested subtly.

Such as using Psychokinetic Flight to lift myself a half-inch off of the beach towel I was laying on, and then sliding back and forth a few inches in each direction. It _worked._ Sure, I might be a cat, but now I was also a _flying_ cat, even if it would be some time before I could properly take advantage of that fact. I 'flexed' another mental power, Read Electrical Impulses, and immediately became aware of the nervous system, cell phone, and other electrical doohickeys of everybody within a goodly radius of myself; it was a bit tricky discerning between them, but my inhumanly-sharp mind was up to the task.

I dropped that power, considered what else I could test out discretely, and threw up Increase Strengh. I could _feel_ the vigor flowing through my flesh, though it was difficult to quantify, given that it'd hardly be discreet if I decided to try to, say, pick someone up and throw them. I dropped the power, content that it had worked, then decided to test Regeneration, by clawing at my right foreleg a little, intent on seeing how it would work. Bad news; no testing of Regeneration yet, good news, Psychokinetic Armor was definitely working, as an invisible screen of force nestled within my fur deflected my own claws. I knew I could force my way through my own passive defenses if I truly wished, but I saw little point; I'd successfully tested three powers, and that was enough for me to decide definitively that things were functional.

I was, once again, a Psychic. This time, a Psychic _cat_.

…

I needed to learn the power for Mind Bullets. To do anything less at this point would be utterly unacceptable.

((()))

"I don't suppose your hospital is looking for a trauma surgeon or general practitioner?" Lynette eventually asked Saeko.

"...I have no idea," Saeko replied, caught completely off guard by the question, "Why would you be interested in working in Tokyo anyways?"

"Look," Lynette said, pointing out towards the surf, where Caitlyn was teaching Ami and a few of the other Japanese girls on vacation how to body-surf in the modest waves, "My adoptive daughter seems to be getting along with yours fairly well, and I'm not ignorant of how attached she clearly is to Jaeger. One place is quite literally just as good as another, and that rascal never intentionally goes anywhere without a purpose. He was the reason we went to England some years back, and we ended up saving, and then fostering, a young man from an abusive family as a direct result."

"...That seems to be putting an awful lot of decision making on a cat," Saeko said hesitantly, not sure if she was listening to a crazy person or not."

"Not as much as it seems," Lynette said with a small grin, "Let us take right now for an example. Boss, or Jaeger as you have come to call him, has become attached to your family, and your family has become attached to him. In response, I can decide to either attempt to take custody of him from you, leave him with your family and move on, which would result in Cait moving to Tokyo by herself, or find amenable conditions under which both of our families can be with Jaeger. I have nowhere else I'm under particular obligation to be, and no friends or family I'm closer to than Caitlyn, who as I said, would go to Tokyo alone if I didn't try to take Boss with us when we leave."

"...That seems an unhealthy level of attachment for your daughter to have to a pet," Saeko said hesitantly, aware her own daughter was more than a little attached.

"Not really," Lynette said sadly, "Boss is a powerful creature, and Caitlyn met him when he saved her life in Chicago. There's a lot involved in that story, but it isn't really my place to tell it for her."

Saeko's eyes widened, and something tickled at the back of her mind as the American woman spoke, something resonating about the enormous cat, saving lives, and... She lost it, whatever it was fading away.

"Jaeger literally saved her life?" Saeko asked hesitantly.

"Tore apart the man attacking her father's shop," Saeko said grimly, "Maine Coons are powerful animals, and Boss is _far_ more powerful than your average Coon."

The two women were silent for a time, Saeko considering Lynette's words, Lynette more than content to wait for the somewhat younger physician to work things out for herself. Long minutes passed in contemplation, Lynette lazing in the sun, until the eclipse began to approach totality, drawing the attention of everyone on the beach towards the false twilight forming above them.

The instant that the Moon was fully interposed between them and the Sun, a scream echoed from down on the waterline, snapping both doctors out of their thoughts.

((()))

Ami was never particularly interested in physical activity, but as she learned how to simply allow the ocean to carry her in to shore, she saw the appeal in body-surfing. Not that it was _particularly_ appealing to her, but it was enjoyable enough, and watching Usagi flounder around as she attempted to mimic the American woman was even more amusing, especially since the blonde never seemed to turn bitter over her clumsiness. She did get discouraged a bit too easily though, but that had only drawn out an element of Caitlyn-san's character that Ami found a great deal of respect for; she actively encouraged Usagi until the blonde was willing to get up and try again.

At least, until the half-burned body of a girl who couldn't have been more than _eight_ splashed down into the surf almost on top of Usagi, tearing a scream out of her. Before Ami (or any of the other Japanese girls present) had even _begun_ to react beyond horrified shock, Caitlyn had swept the wounded girl up into her arms, and began sprinting up the beach towards where Saeko and Lynette had been talking together.

((()))

Like almost all apex predators other than humans, cats have vastly sharper senses than the dominant tool-users, and I heard the beginning of Usagi's scream before anyone else on the beach had as a result. Just _thinking_ about that ignorant blonde stirred a turn of unexpected rage in me, but I shunted it aside; what she'd done had been unintentional, and had doubtless done more good than harm anyways. Lynette was already surging to her feet, and I could see in her movements that the training I had urged her to undergo had been tempered by regular combat, and she moved like a warrior now, ready to battle the moment it was needed.

Caitlyn, cradling the burnt form of a child in her arms, had been moving like a warrior before I had been forced to leave her a dimension behind; now she moved with all the grace of a blooded predator, which I knew in many ways she was. Perhaps most importantly of all amongst those moving, I sensed dark, destructive magic all over the wounded girl in her arms, something that Lynette would _need_ to know about if she was to treat the girl successfully.

Which meant I needed communication ability, _now_ , without causing a ruckus which might make the situation even more of a mess than it already was. That left two options; trying to shapeshift out of sight, or spending a few of my loose PP to gain access to the Telepathy Discipline, since I couldn't _talk_ as a cat.

Looked like mind bullets would be coming sooner, rather than later.

((()))

Saeko grimaced as she took in the scorched child that Caitlyn had carried up out of the surf, and it took only a glance at Lynette for both to know that the trauma surgeon would be taking the lead in dealing with the injured girl.

"Caitlyn," Lynette snapped, "Get my bag from the car, the red one."

Caitlyn sprinted towards the car, and though Saeko only paid her a single glance, she was fairly certain that the young woman was moving faster than should have been humanly possible. She hadn't worked in an ER or other ward where treatment was as time-critical as what Lynette customarily worked with, but Saeko was still more than aware enough of the urgency at hand to force her attention away from apparent-impossibilities to the certainty of potential death in front of her.

"Ami," She half-shouted, "Get someone to call an ambulance, _right now_."

Ami half-stuttered a response, but was interrupted by Jaeger leaping up onto her, knocking the girl down, before turning to stare at Lynette. Even though she hadn't been watching the cat, instead pouring bottled water over the edge of the girl's burns, Lynette's attention was immediately seized by the cat, and she turned to stare at the feline for long seconds, before looking down at the girl again.

"No time," She scowled, "We need to get her treatment in the next twenty minutes, or we'll lose her. Saeko, do you have a vehicle here?"

"I do," A new voice cut in, and the pair of doctors turned to see Sakurada Natsuna approaching, a pair of strapping (by Japanese standards) young officers moving up behind her, "And I'm willing to bet the limo will give her a smoother ride."

"We need to move _now_ then," Lynette declared, carefully centering the girl on the beach towel she'd been laid on, "I wasn't kidding about the twenty minutes."

"You heard her boys," Natsuna said, nodding towards the wounded girl, "Help the doctor move her patient."

Two minutes later, they were laying the towel, wounded girl on top of it, down on the floor of the limo, and Lynette was inserting an IV line into her left arm, the right being burned too badly to support the needle, while Saeko hung a bag of saline from an anchor point built into the limo's ceiling. Caitlyn was using a set of sterile swabs (pulled from Lynette's red bag, as the IV had been) to begin cleaning the exposed burns; at Lynette's advice, Natsuna was keeping Ami and the other girls her age out of the limo, so they wouldn't need to see the full extent of the girl's wounds as she was treated. Thirty seconds after reaching the limo, it was pulling onto the streets of Kota Kinabalu, while Ami and the other girls piled into one of the other cars they'd come to the beach in to follow.

The passenger compartment of the limo contained Natsuna, Lynette, Caitlyn, Saeko, the wounded girl, and though half those present didn't notice him until the vehicle was already moving, Jaeger.

"Cait," Lynette ordered as she began to work on removing the burned girl's scorched clothing, "Close the privacy screen, she doesn't need any more people seeing this than necessary."

Caitlyn did so, cutting off the driver's view of the passenger compartment, and a second later, Jaeger scooted out from where he'd been hiding under one of the seats, and then did something that shocked Natsuna and Saeko.

He turned into a human.

"The burns are cursed," He said hoarsely, his voice distorted, sounding almost creepily inhuman, "The curse will kill her before the burn will; you're going to need to pull out all the stops."

"Right," Lynette said, scarcely even blinking at Jaeger's abrupt change into a massively tall man with occidental features, "What can you give us for support here?"

"I can drop some healing," Jaeger ground out, the tone and pitch of his voice changing as he spoke, gradually shifting to something more human, "But I don't have anything to use against the magic right now."

"I'll take care of the curse then," Lynette said with a grimace, "Or at least, I'll try. Cait?"

"I'll do what I can to dampen it," The girl said with a nod, "Let's do this."

Caitlyn's eyes narrowed, the iris subtly darkening, and a shadow that was-but-was-not visible began to radiate off of her. Within the limo, only Lynette and Jaeger could feel its effects, like a heavy weight pressing down on their spirits, though in the car trailing behind, the Senshi each felt vaguely like a feather had touched them in some way or another. More importantly, Caitlyn's magic-suppression technique had weakened the curse upon the wounded child between them, and though it also weighed down upon Lynette's magic, the curse was a 'static' thing, its power limited to what had been imbued into it at the moment of its casting.

The doctor/spellcaster, however, had the luxury of hurling as much of her power as she pleased into the spell she was readying, simply pouring enough into it to overcome Caitlyn's blanket suppression effect. With a sharp gesture and a word, Lyn hurled her spell (invisible to those unable to manipulate magic themselves) into the insensate form of the burned girl, and the curse shattered.

"Drop it!" Jaeger barked, his voice sounding vaguely canine but mostly human, and upon the instant that Cait's suppression field was released, he hurled a healing spell of his own into the form of the girl.

While the spell itself was not visible to Saeko or Natsuna, this time the _effects_ were, charred organs, muscle, and bone, visibly knitting together as tissue regenerated at supernatural speeds. In the handful of seconds it took for the spell to work its course, all damaged organs, bones, and connective tissue in joints was restored, as well as much of the damaged muscle. Most of the skin, however, was left un-healed, and some of the muscle damage was not restored.

"It'll have to do for now," Jaeger said, grimacing down at the child's mutilated body, "I _should_ be able to restore the rest later, but if we do it now, it'll cause too many questions at the hospital."

" _At the HOSPITAL?_ " Saeko shrieked, and the trio of supernatural healers were forcibly reminded that they were _not_ , in fact, alone in the limousine.

"I'm sorry for the rude awakening," Lynette said with a wince as she turned her attention to the other physician in the limo, "But as you may have just gathered, magic is actually real, and my abilities as a healer aren't limited just to what I learned in medical school."

"I don't know how to deal with this," Saeko said rather faintly.

"Look at it this way," Caitlyn said with a wolfish grin, "Now you know why we're so attached to your 'cat.'"

Jaeger snorted, Lynette rolled her eyes, and Natsuna just smiled slightly as she looked on.

((()))

I shifted forms back to feline before we reached the hospital; no one saw a large human male get into the back of the limo, and it would raise too many questions if they saw one getting out. It would hardly be some sort of inescapable dilemma, but why deal with it at all if I didn't have to?

Fortunately/unfortunately, this resulted me in spending the next half an hour comforting Ami as she quietly cried tears of sympathy and stress over the little horrifically mutilated little girl she had encountered on the beach. I had my suspicions about who the girl was, but until I'd had the chance to speak with her, they would mean very little. A half-hour spent wrapped around Ami's shoulders was hardly a burdensome way to pass the time as we waited for word on the girl, even if Saeko kept shooting me unhappy looks when Ami wasn't looking. I couldn't blame the woman, considering what had just been revealed, and I was very careful to avoid letting Ami pull me around into her lap, because I knew from there she'd try to hug me against her chest, not an appropriate thing considering the circumstances, especially-

My thoughts were derailed as the doors leading into the 'Emergency Room' waiting area crashed open, and a pair of orderlies rushed past us with a gurney. On the wheeled metal 'bed,' lay a woman in the middle of some kind of violent seizure, leather straps restraining her limbs; the hair color was wrong, but I recognized the scent immediately.

 _Beryl._

((()))

AN: As soon as I finished 'rebuilding' Jaeger, I had him roll a Psychic Resistance save to break the memory block Usagi's spell dropped on him; he open-rolled to a 271. The highest possible save difficulty given in Anima is 240, though you can boost it to 260 via a reinforcing spell from the Creation path; sometimes, the dice work with the narrative _exactly_ the way that I want them to.

Also, for those wondering, Fukui is the closest I could find to the fictional 'Fuyuki' from FS/N, and it's a reasonably large city, so it seemed to fit.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: And here's the start of the next chapter:

Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kota Kinabalu, was something of a disgrace. It wasn't because it was underfunded, it wasn't because it was understaffed, it wasn't because the staff did shoddy work or were poorly trained, though certain disgruntled individuals would argue that all of these things were true. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital was a disgrace, because the building company had decided to cut costs, using the 'brutalist' architectural style to justify his 'utilitarian choice.'

The fact that he'd been using _sea shells_ and _beach sand_ as aggregate in the concrete the building was constructed from suggested to many that he had gone well beyond being merely 'cost efficient.' Though the building had been up for less than half of its intended usable life-span, internal bracing had needed to be installed in order to prevent partial internal collapse, and plans had already been made for demolishing and replacing the structure before it injured the hospital's patients. 'Unfortunately' the plans the architect had been using had been 'lost' in an office fire, preventing a full investigation into the entire fiasco.

Even more unfortunately, the team of shrouded individuals infiltrating the hospital concealed beneath illusion spells were not aware of the hospital's un-sound nature, and neither were any of their targets.

((()))

 _Something_ moved, and it seized my attention immediately, most likely an artifact of my heightened predator's instincts. I couldn't _see_ it, I couldn't _smell_ it, I couldn't _hear_ it, but I could _sense it_. I could, in a way, _feel_ it, or rather _them_ , because there were three of them, and they had just infiltrated the hospital via the roof. And 'infiltrated' was unquestionably the right word, because they were magical, and more, they were trying to _hide_ that magic.

 _'Potential hostiles inbound,_ ' I sent via Telepathy to Cait and Lynette, _'I'm going to go investigate._ '

"Got it," Cait whispered, too quietly to be more than a murmur to human ears, but readily detectable to mind; Lynette just nodded, and I slipped out of the lobby outside the OR where the burned child was being treated.

((()))

" _This is Striker 2, I've sighted one of the potentials. Civilians present, and two Ki Adepts._ "

" _Do you need support?"_

" _Unknown Five, the subject appears to be a mid-teen Japanese female with unusually long hair; no sign of training or threat by stance. Request Striker One or Four for better analysis of subject."_

" _Granted. I'm routing Striker Four. Three, what's the status on that Matrix?"_

" _Definitely an active Psychic in the building, I'm looking at layered defensive enhancements. Be warned, they may already know we're here."_

" _Confirmed."_

((()))

Ami, Makoto, Minako, Usagi, and Rei, were all clustered together in the third floor lobby of the hospital, the floor on which the burned child was being treated. Ami knew that burns were one of the harder to treat injuries; there was little modern medicine could do beyond clean the wounds and hydrate them, but she hadn't shared that little tidbit with the others. Usagi was freaking out enough over the entire affair as it was. When Ami's mother wanted to comfort or reassure her, in the past, she would do so by educating Ami about the subject at hand in a patient, reassuring manner; Ami felt the urge to attempt a similar method, but had already learned in her brief weeks of knowing the flighty blonde, that such an attempt would be counter-productive with her.

Rei was handling the entire affair stoically; living at one of the few shrines managed by a 'serious' practitioner of Shinto mysticism, she had grown up meeting many grievously injured or ill patrons of the shrine. Injury and death were far from new experiences for her, and she had almost unconsciously slipped into the role of comforting Usagi while she fretted and cried over the injured child that had literally dropped into her arms.

Minako helped Rei as she could, but something painful was gnawing at the edge of her memories as she thought about death, and it kept distracting her. To a number of the others in the lobby who were waiting for word regarding family or friends of their own, Minako's expression reminded them of those who had already seen personal loss.

Makoto, to all visible signs, seemed to be dealing with the situation worse than any except for Usagi, stalking angrily around the lobby, her muscles tense, her hands regularly clenching into fists until she remembered to relax them, frustration clear on her face. She wasn't the only person in the lobby dealing with injury through anger, but she was certainly the youngest, as well as the most dynamic about it. Makoto was also the first of the girls to notice when Saeko walked into the lobby, looking strangely exhausted given that she'd been gone less than an hour, and somewhat unsettled.

"The girl will live," Saeko announced as she approached the girls, "Gates-sensei is apparently a miracle-worker, the child won't even lose any of her limbs; it looks like she'll make a nearly-complete recovery."

"Nearly?" Ami asked hesitantly, a tinge of fear in her voice.

"Even with skin grafts," Saeko said, shaking her head slightly, "There's nothing modern medicine can do to remove _all_ of her scars. With long sleeves, gloves, and some use of cosmetics, she should be able to pass unnoticed in public, but anyone who sees her in a swimsuit will know she's been burned."

Ami looked her mother in the eye, then looked meaningfully towards Usagi. Saeko turned to look at the blonde, and in an uncharacteristic loss of composure, flinched upon meeting her soulful, teary-eyed gaze.

"Ah," Saeko said awkwardly, before visibly shaking off her uncertainty, "Don't worry about it. It'll take time, but the child will grow up fully healthy, and given some of the things Gates-sensei showed me, I wouldn't be surprised if treatments for the cosmetic damage will be available by the time she's in her twenties as well."

"I'm so _relieved!_ " Usagi gasped out, bursting into tears all over again, and Saeko winced.

((()))

' _Cait, someone has infiltrated the hospital under magical stealth. Two are on the fifth floor, and I'm moving to intercept, the others are likely heading towards the girls on the third floor, please look after them.'_

' _I'm on it,_ ' Cait replied _'Lyn is stuck with the doctors that treated the burned girl, if things get loud who should she move on first?'_

 _'The girls,_ 'Jaeger replied, ' _Even if I can't put down an attack on Beryl, they'll have a hell of a time putting_ me _down._ '

Cait nodded as she felt the mental link wane, then crossed the scrub room she was in to where Lynette was being harassed by a pair of local doctors, and whispered the results of her conversation with Jaeger in the older woman's ear, before moving off to join the Japanese teenagers Jaeger had managed to pick up somewhere.

((()))

" _This is Striker One, potential in sight. Subject is a Japanese female, early to mid twenties, tall for her ethnicity, dark haired, attractive features, and under heavy sedation. No sign of any form of security, am proceeding with caution."_

" _Confirmed Striker One. Striker Three, prepare for extraction as soon as One verifies viability for transport."_

" _Affirmative Five. Be warned, I am detecting an active Psychic moving through the building, possibly towards us."_

" _All Strikers, that makes one Psychic, two, possibly three Mages, and three Ki Adepts. Either someone got here before we did, or we're looking at the home team, be prepared to use alternate fallback points if mission is foiled."_

" _Affirmative."_

((()))

Two of the infiltrators were slipping into Beryl's room, and I suspected that one of them had noticed that I was tailing them, though I wasn't certain. Either way, there was no reason for me not to trail them into the deposed queen's room, especially given none of the hospital staff were currently therein. A brief glance at her chart and use of the medical knowledge crammed into my school allowed me to ascertain that her seizures had stopped quickly once she was sedated, suggesting she may have been instead suffering from emotional trauma or some form of PTSD.

Given what I knew had happened to her within the last couple of days, I considered that far more likely than some form of neurological disorder. She had lapsed into a largely-peaceful sleep since they'd applied the sedative, though they hadn't removed the restraints holding her to the bed, and after one of the invisible (to the naked eye at least) individuals locked the door, the other one present within dropped their spell, and inspected first Beryl, and then the chart, themselves. To Jaeger's considerable surprise, the man was carrying a short sword and a combat shotgun, as well as wearing what looked like a kevlar-weave cloak over a set of low-profile body armor.

"We'll need a proper scholar to get the details on this," The man said quietly, "But it looks to me like this woman fought off a possession recently, timed to about when everything went to hell. No traps I can detect though, time to move her."

The second individual decloaked, revealing a substantially younger man, barely into his twenties by the look of him, who raised a hand to touch Beryl; I decided it was time to act, and I _moved_.

((()))

((()))

Leo Kazinski knew that he was the rookie, the 'new guy' on this op, that the only reason he had been picked for the operation at _all_ was because of the abrupt and overwhelming manpower crisis that the Praetorians had found themselves suffering from, and he'd expected to be picked on a bit by his teammates as a result. He hadn't expected the _opposing force_ to pick on him as well.

When Leo reached out to lay a hand on and teleport one of their primary objectives out of the operational area, a grip like iron clamped down on his wrist, pinning it in place centimeters from the subject.

"The lady will be staying right here," A guttural voice growled as Leo instinctively twisted in place, lashing out with an arcing blast of electricity, which ricocheted off of a barrier above the interloper's skin, grounding itself in the hospital's tile floor, the voice continuing unperturbed as his hand was pulled steadily away from the unconscious woman, "And there is no violence permitted within the hospital."

The man was _huge_ , easily over six feet, and powerfully muscular; Kazinski was no bio-kinetic, and was not _remotely_ surprised that the man was completely overpowering him physically.

"Let him go," barked Kazinski's teammate, Striker One, sweeping his shotgun into his hands and bringing it to bear on the unconscious woman in the bed, "Or the woman gets it."

"You'll not be shooting her," The interloper growled, "You need her alive. What do you want with her?"

Striker One said nothing for several seconds, and Kazinski realized he was relaying information to Five, who was the OpCor.

" _One, Three, Eliminate the interloper and proceed with securing objective."_

Kazinski winced; he'd hoped to settle this bloodlessly, but Five had made the call, and she _was_ in command of the operation; Striker One didn't even take the time to wince, he just opened fire.

The Shotgun's sharp report barked twice, heavy buckshot crashing into, and partially through the interloper's defensive screen (something Kazinski was beginning to recognize as a form of Telekinetic force-field. Blood spattered from the interloper's arm, the _crack_ of gunfire echoed painfully within the room waking the subject in spite of her being sedated, and then the interloper counterattacked.

No weapon was drawn, no Psychic Power was employed, the man simply lunged across the room, seizing Striker One in a bear hug, and slamming him into a wall. The Shotgun barked twice more, firing at point blank range, sending a flurry of pellets ricocheting off of the hostile Psychic's force field; Kazinski couldn't tell if any managed to break through, but he threw his own contribution into the mix, slamming a bolt of lightning into the man's back.

The hostile roared in pain as his flesh was seared by Kazinski's power, before smashing Striker One's gut with his knee, then seizing the man's sheathed sword, and hurling it at Kazinski. The throw was awkward, and Kazinski easily deflected it with a burst of electromagnetic energy, before smashing another bolt of energy into the hostile's back while the man worked to pin Striker One down. Reasserting its protective force, the telekinetic screen absorbed most of the damage, barely enough to singe the man getting through, but Kazinski's attack still managed to knock the hostile off balance enough to give Striker One another chance to return fire.

Lightning and shotgun barked in unison, the electricity diverting the majority of the field's protective effect, allowing the shotgun to tear a bloody hole through the right side of the hostile's chest, dropping him to the floor, limp.

"Damn," Striker One breathed as he stepped back, reloading his shotgun as he moved "Tough bastard."

"Psychokinetic Armor," Kazinski said with a nod and a wince as he yanked Striker One's shortsword out of the wall behind him, "He was a fairly powerful telekine, on top of his raw physical strength."

"Psychic?" One said, raising an eyebrow, "He's-"

One froze for a second, and Kazinski immediately froze as well, instinctively surveying his surroundings for potential threats. The only hostile he could see was down on the floor with blood flowing out through the hole in his chest, but more importantly, the door (which had been locked) was open, and _the subject's bed was empty_.

" _Shit_ ," Kazinski breathed.

((()))

" _One and Three are engaging for possession of subject hereby named Alpha. Status on Subject Beta?"_

" _In the third floor lobby, Two Ki Adepts present, though one of them is too green to pose a relevant threat. Third Ki Adept has begun to approach."_

" _Confirmed Striker Two, Striker Four?"_

" _No Mages in lobby, one from further out in floor, currently stationary, I suspect she has not detected us. Recommend move now."_

" _Affirmative. Take the subject."_

((()))

Makoto felt _something_ in the instant before she was struck, and her instincts acted in perfect synchroniety with the most alacritious part of her consciousness; right arm swept inward and upward, left fist lashed out, and grazed against the edge of a just-revealed man's cheek.

Suddenly, Makoto's anger and frustration had an outlet.

"You're going _down_ you _creep!_ "She shouted, already moving into an offensive sequence she had synthesized from Shotokan, western Boxing, and Muay Thai.

Adroitly recovering from the unexpected counter-attack her foe parried the first blow, but her third shifted from the powerful full-body blows favored by Muay Thai to a sharp jab more typical of Boxing, and caught her foe by surprise, slamming into his cheek, rattling his jaw, and nearly knocking him off balance enough to land the follow up, only managing a bare deflection.

He wasn't off balance for long though, settling into a blistering counterattack of his own, forcefully driving Makoto into a retreat across the lobby, until she caught the final thundering blow of his offense with an aggressive forearm block, the collision of fist on forearm sending an audible _smack_ resounding through the lobby.

"Muay Thai, Shotokan, Boxing," The man, roughly Makoto's height with a powerful build that made him seem far larger than her, said with a sharp nod, "You have studied the same offensive schools as I."

"Kempo too," bit out as she started a counter-offensive, which he promptly took control of and riposted against, landing a painful blow against her shoulder.

"You're good girl," He replied as he drove her back again, nearly to the wall of the lobby, "But you made one critical mistake."

"What?" Makoto snarled as she deflected and blocked the rest of his offensive series.

"You fight alone," The man replied as a searing beam of light crashed into Makoto's side, momentarily blinding the gawking onlookers in the lobby.

" _Shit_ ," The newly-revealed mage near the door of the lobby breathed, "I don't think that-"

"Who says she's fighting alone?" Cait growled as she back-handed the mage halfway across the room, before stalking forward to advance on the wiry martial artist already in the room.

"What she said," Makoto growled, twisting streamers of light writhing against her flank as an ephemeral barrier ablated and subsumed the lance of energy which had struck her side, revealing that she hadn't been harmed in the least by the attack.

" _Shit_ ," The martial artist breathed.

((()))

AN: Makoto failed to notice she was being crept up on by an invisible guy, so he got the drop on her (90 to her defense), his attack modifier was better than her defense modifier, and he deals more damage than her. Makoto says 'LOLNOPE' and open-rolls (crit-successes) her defense, gets a counter-attack, and shuts the bastard down.

Then she _did_ roll well enough to detect the second ambusher, and her Ki/CP abilities made up for her being worn down defensively, allowing her to completely tank the surprise attack.

Seriously Makoto, why you so awesome?

((()))

Negative 56 Life Points apparently looks like a big old hole in your chest. A big old _painful_ hole in your chest; note to self: Shotguns hurt when applied to self.

Fortunately, I still had a solid six hundred and some Zeon on hand, and the handy-dandy Recover spell, just waiting to give me 500 LP in exchange for 250 of that Zeon. It was a bitch to charge the spell up through the pain, but fortunately, Anima doesn't really do much in the way of 'concentration check to not lose your spell to distraction,' so once I had all 250 Zeon charged, I was as good as new.

Literally. There wasn't a mark on me; Recover could heal damaged organs, bones, the works (possibly even major diseases), and it replaced the parts of my lung and ribcage spattered across the hospital floor with no issue whatsoever. No pain is _great fun_ after having a hole blown in your chest by a combat shotgun; the bits of me that had been blasted out of me still littered the floor though.

Ew. Me-bits.

If nothing else, my decision to take (keep really) Eternal Blood was a bit of a big deal; I was exactly 1 LP past 'you may die from this damage' into straight-out 'you're dead-dead' territory after those last two shotgun blasts, and considering what else I _hadn't_ taken, I was glad I'd compensated for my own errors.

And they were some pretty damn egregious errors at that; I'd let myself get distracted by all the cool-shiny Psychic Abilities, Spells, Ki Abilities, yadda-ya, and left my actual Attack and defense numbers on par with a _level one_ character. Some level one characters had _higher_ combat stats than I did, and I was _level eight_. Sure, I could cast my Recover spell to make up for damage lost, but if I'd been smarter in how I spent my DP, I wouldn't have taken that damage in the first place.

Also, if I'd been smarter, I would've remembered to use my Improvised Ki Abilities to punch people in the face _much harder_ , rather than just trying to grapple the apparent larger threat into a pin. Attempting to 'Immobilize' someone by the Anima system, once you actually laid hands on them, was entirely dependent on raw Strength, not skill, and I was stronger than shotgun-man, which _almost_ let the tactic work. Unfortunately for me, that whole 'outnumbered' thing came back to bite me.

Unfortunately for _them_ , they apparently hadn't watched Zombieland (nevermind that it's not coming out for another decade or more), and failed to double-tap, or even just visually check to make sure I was dead.

So, time to go track them down and start on Round Two.

((()))

Something was _wrong_. Beryl didn't know _what_ (aside from the obvious shotgun-and-lightning fight in the hospital room she woke up in), but something was definitely _wrong_.

She was Fujiwara Beryl, on vacation in Malaysia, and had been visiting Kota Kinabalu in order to watch the eclipse, when...

She didn't know what. She didn't know why even _that_ seemed wrong, when everything she could see and sense added up with that. She had her faculty ID from Todai in the bag she'd grabbed from beside her bed, she had her passport (complete with short-term Visa stamp for visiting Malaysia), she had her...

Soemthing. She had her something that she _knew_ she carried with her, even though she couldn't name it, couldn't find it in her bag, and given that all she was 'wearing' was a hospital gown (most unfashionable!), she certainly wasn't carrying it on her person anywhere _else_ , but she was still certain that she 'had' it with her somewhere. Just as a terrified part of her heart and mind were insisting that there was something _missing_ , something that it was _good_ to have missing, that she never wanted to see, hear, or feel again.

And all of these things were racing through her mind as she scurried hurriedly through the halls of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, vaguely wondering why none of the orderlies or other hospital staff had intercepted her yet, despite her garb.

((()))

Natsuna Sakurada wasn't particularly _fond_ of paperwork, but she'd learned to tolerate it through the course of her career; even with a small army of assistants, there were some things she simply _had_ to handle by herself, and she wouldn't have risen as far as she had if she wasn't willing to tackle such bureaucratic issues head-on.

That didn't make attempting to sort out the legalities of 'checking in' a child with no known legal identity (who had been magically healed of life-threatening burns!) any less irritating, _especially_ when there were much more interesting things to be involved with. Like getting Gates Lynette and her daughter to spill the beans on the magical transforming cat, curses, and healing spells.

When her wrangling with the legal department of the hospital was interrupted by a building-wide alarm, Natsuna was almost relieved, and disappeared with her two (covertly armed) escorts to investigate the cause. By the time the legal secretary she'd been speaking with had overcome her shock at hearing the alarm, Natsuna was long gone.

((()))

Makoto had learned nine different martial arts, four of them _very_ aggressive styles, taught by second dan or higher masters of their respective arts, but she had _never_ seen someone fight as aggressively as Caitlyn Gates did. If Makoto hadn't been _furious_ , she probably would have found it to be terrifying.

Their foe had shifted to a purely defensive stance, a tactical choice inhibited by the fact that he was unskilled in any recognizable defensive-oriented art. While Muay Thai, Shotokan, and other aggressive arts certainly had defensive elements, they had nothing that could compare to Aikido or Lama, and the man suffered for it. Makoto and Caitlyn steadily forced him back into a corner, gradually battering his defenses down, and forcing the odd shot through against his ribs or shoulders, the two of them simply more than he could handle by himself.

Then the mage re-entered the fight, announcing his presence with a pair of stone spikes, erupting from the floor beneath Makoto and Caitlyn. Riding on an adrenaline high, their combat awareness was sharp enough that they easily evaded the attacks, but it did force them to back off, and bought their beseiged opponent breathing room.

"You take sparkle-boy," Caitlyn growled, "I've got fists here."

Makoto nodded, and turned to charge the mage, who was already gathering energy for another spell.

((()))

" _Striker Three, Two and Four have been engaged by competent adversaries. Reroute and engage immediately."_

" _Affirmative."_

Kazinski said nothing further, teleporting immediately to where the group's psychic 'channel' told him Striker Four was, leaving Striker One to finish tracking down Subject Alpha by himself. Striker One was only fifty feet away from Subject Alpha according to their tracking spell anyways.

Jaeger, however, was just as close to Striker One, and he was also _faster_.

((()))

When the hospital's evacuation alarm sounded, Lynette _finally_ had a valid excuse to get the pair of local doctors she'd worked on the burned child with to stop harassing her, one that she was nigh-infinitely grateful for. She took advantage of it immediately, exiting the scrub-room she'd been stuck in for the last half-hour, and looking for someone to flag down and ask what was happening.

Then she received a triplet of mental 'pings' from Caitlyn, in a pattern that gave Lynette more cause to be wary than the hospital's alarm and all the near-panic it induced did. Powerful magical foes were in the building, and they wanted to fight.

((()))

It's easy to 'hide' in a crowd, especially when they're half-panicked, and running from the angry-looking man wearing a trench-coat and brandishing a shotgun; shotgun-boy was sharp enough to at least occasionally glance behind him, but not sharp enough to spot me, and I was better at masking my magical presence than he was detecting it.

I _thought_ I had him by surprise when I tried to seize him around the shoulders, but either he'd spotted me (unlikely, he should have just turned around and shot me), or he was more on edge after I'd gotten ahold of him last time (more likely), and had no intention of letting me trap him again. He twisted around as he slipped out of my grasp and his shotgun barked twice, but my Psychokinetic Armor absorbed the rounds with no issue, and I lunged at him again.

He read my intentions like a book, and dropped another pair of shells directly into my chest at point blank, nearly stunning me with the pain as they breached my shields and nearly crushed my ribcage. That made me... _angry_.

Pumping Ki into an already adrenaline-infused attack, I pushed forward through the gunfire, and seized him by the forearms, forcing the weapon away from me.

"That _hurt_ ," I growled.

"You should be _dead_ ," He replied with forced calm, revealing an Italian accent as he did so.

I replied by turning and slamming him into the wall, forcing him to either drop his gun or let me crush his throat with it; he tried to kick me, but I shrugged it off, my Psychic Armor not failing me this time. I twisted in place, forcing both his hands together, seized them with my left hand while pinning his chest in place with my left shoulder, then started to beat the shit out of him with my right fist.

((()))

" _Striker Five, First hostile has recovered from shredded lung and ambushed me, I'm pretty much finished here."_

" _Affirmative Striker One, see you back at base."_

((()))

It took half a dozen blows to pound shotgun-boy into unconsciousness, and to my considerable irritation, as soon as I dropped him to sag against the wall, his body disappeared in a flash of teleportation.

I pushed the matter out of my mind; I still needed to find Beryl.

((()))

The situation was ugly when Kazinski arrived, _literally_ ugly; he showed up just in time to watch Striker Four take the fist of a _teenage girl_ clear _through_ his chest. Kazinski had seen death before, but he'd never seen it dealt out like that by a teenage girl who was rather obviously wearing sweats over a swimsuit.

Neither, apparently, had the girl herself; once she had pulled back into a balanced combat stance, she stared down at the man whose heart she had just crushed, and locked up. Kazinski had seen death before, but he was still inexperienced by the standards of his unit, and nothing in his training had prepared him for dealing with someone going from 'angry killer' to 'vulnerable teenager' in less than a second flat.

Fortunately, he didn't _need_ to; seconds later, the doors that led into the room from an adjoining staircase opened, and two men armed with handguns swept into the room, immediately focusing their attention on _him._ A well-practiced gesture raised a shield that absorbed their fire without so much as a flicker, and Kazinski found himself re-focused on the tactical situation.

" _Striker Five_ ," he reported silently, as he retreated towards the doors men with guns _hadn't_ just entered through, _"Four is dead, Two is-"_

The muscular young woman that Striker Two had been fighting (and slowly winning) against tore her clothes to shreds as she abruptly erupted from a five-foot-eight woman into a nine-foot-too-much Werewolf.

" _About to get his ass kicked by a bloody_ Werewolf _. Operation is FUBAR."_

" _Striker One was just knocked unconscious and his teleport trigger activated. I'm withdrawing the rest of you now."_ Five replied.

" _Roger that_ ," Kazinski sent with some relief, just before something cold and metallic snapped into place around his wrist, and something blunt introduced itself briefly to his head, taking his consciousness with it when it left.

((()))

Lynette attached the other half of the dimensionally-locking cuffs she'd used on the hostile to an Immobile Rod she also withdrew from her 'Bag of Holding' (really more of a fanny-pack), and took stock of the situation in the lobby. The first thing she noticed was two bodies, one that locked to be a corpse, disappearing in a flash of teleportation; closely followed by the fact that Caitlyn had gone Were, Ami and her schoolgirl friends were still in the room, and Natsuna had just walked in behind her bodyguards/assistants.

"I swear," She said, looking up at Caitlyn with a scowl, "It never changes. I let you out of my sight for _ten minutes_ , and somebody's trying to kill someone. What did they want this time?"

"Hell if I know," Caitlyn growled, the deep voice of her were-form causing the teens in the room to flinch, "When I got here, there were only two of them trying to kill Kino there," Caitlyn nodded towards Makoto, "Who I think may be in shock from accidentally killing one of them."

"This time?" Natsuna cut in, "This is a frequent occurrence for you then?"

"It depends on where we are at the time," Lynette responded as she crossed the lobby, moving towards Makoto, "And _change back_ , Caitlyn, you're scaring the girls."

The white werewolf rolled her eyes, an unsettling expression to see on such a large predator, before rapidly shrinking down into Caitlyn's human form, though of her clothing, only her swimsuit survived both transitions.

"So you're usually attacked in hospitals, but not on beaches?" Natsuna asked as she began moving towards the huddled cluster of frightened teenagers, who were trying (unsuccessfully) to hide behind Saeko, who looked to barely be holding things together herself.

"More like the other way around," Lynette said with a sigh as she carefully reached out to lay a hand on Makoto's shoulder, causing the girl to flinch violently, but finally turn away from the bloody spot that a corpse had just recently disappeared from.

When she looked down and saw the blood and viscera on her fist, she started screaming.

((()))

"Beryl," A deep male voice called, and she flinched in her hiding place.

It wasn't much of a hiding place; a janitor's closet exiting off of the hospital's central stairwell, but it was all she had really been able to find that she could reasonably expect nobody to look in. Apparently, whoever was following her had decided not to be reasonable.

"I know you're in there Beryl," The man said again, "I've driven one of the attackers out of the hospital, but I don't know what happened to the other yet. I've been tracking you by scent, but they were probably using something more esoteric, and will find you at least as easily as I did."

Beryl winced; she didn't recognize the voice, but context made it fairly clear who it most likely was that had followed her here, and she had no idea what to do, no experience or frame of reference for developing any plan beyond 'call the police' to deal with the situation.

"Beryl, I'm not going to enter a small enclosed room with a half-naked woman without her invitation unless death or the like is on the line," The voice continued, somewhat exasperated, "Which it _isn't_ , but it could be soon... Actually..."

Silence passed for a few minutes.

"No, it isn't," The man declared, "I've had word from my compatriots that they've driven off the rest of the attackers. Would you feel more comfortable if I asked a female doctor or someone similar to meet you in there?"

"Please?" The half-composed, half-needy reply leaked from Beryl's lips before she realized what she was saying, and she had to fight down the urge to curse herself for it.

"I'll do that," The man said affirmatively, "I shouldn't even need to leave the stairwell to do so, so just scream if someone else causes you trouble in the meantime."

Footsteps faded away, and Beryl wasn't certain if she'd just won or lost an argument that she wasn't sure she'd had.

((()))

I didn't actually need to walk away, of course, I could have just used Telepathy from where I stood, but in my experience, letting someone having a panic attack have the impression that they have some control over the situation is far more likely to make things better, rather than worse. Within reason of course, I was trying to make it clear that I wouldn't force my way into her immediate presence if she didn't want me to, not give her a deadly weapon to use while she was freaking out.

It was still hard to properly parse the tangled jumble of memories and attached emotions from the last couple of hours before Usagi had dropped her Ginzuisho-bomb, but I was pretty sure Beryl had been a lot more composed and defiant right at the end. Of course, she'd had a _purpose_ behind that, if she'd lost all her memories of magical abilities (and had something else jammed in her head instead), then it would be hard to formulate a coherent plan for dealing with the situation at hand, even with a strong will.

And I knew from personal experience, that even the strongest-willed individuals tended to flounder when they had no way to figure out how to deal with a situation they found themselves in. Fortunately for Beryl, she wasn't going to have to deal with this one alone.

"Lynette," I called as I stuck my head through the doorway into the third-floor lobby, and saw her trying to comfort a panicked Makoto.

She waved me away, so I turned to look at Caitlyn instead, who was busy with Saeko and the girls, leaving the only one woman in the room who _wasn't_ already dealing with someone in the process of a nervous breakdown; Natsuna. She saw me turning to look at her, and read my expression well.

"What do you need, Neko-san," She asked, giving me one of those _looks_ as she spoke.

"There's a woman freaking out in a janitor's closet two floors up," I said, keeping things simple since I wasn't sure if Natsuna's new memories incorporated Beryl in some way or another, "She was one of this attack's targets, and I think it would be better if a woman coaxed her out of hiding, especially given all she's wearing is a hospital gown."

"I'll go pry her out," Natsuna said, before nodding towards an unconscious body beside her, "But you have to keep an eye on tweedle-dum here for me in the meantime, I've got questions for him."

"I can do that," I said, knowing fully well that she wouldn't just be questioning _him_ if I was still around when she got back.

((()))

It took some doing, but Natsuna had _experience_ with talking people down from tense situations, and she _was_ a charismatic woman in Beryl's (apparent) peer group, so they had a fair bit of common ground for her to work from. Dealing with the fallout from the attack on the hospital was considerably harder, but between Natsuna's own position as Superintendant General of the TMPD, Beryl's status as a cousin of the Japanese Imperial Family, none of the local police were willing to try to hold any of those present after they'd had their statements regarding the attack taken.

Jaeger's human form 'disappearing' after the attack gave the police someone else to focus on anyways, even if he did leave a written statement before pulling his vanishing act, and letting Ami carry him out of the hospital; moving their captured member of the strike team without anyone noticing was more of a trick, one which Lynette handled adroitly.

Eventually though, they all ended up back on Natsuna's chartered cruise ship, and _questions_ were asked.

((()))

"So," Natsuna said cheerfully once they had settled into her primary stateroom, "Magic, or something functionally indistinguishable, is real, and at least the three of you know how to use it. What's up with that?"

Caitlyn, Jaeger (in human form) Lynette, Natsuna (and two of her assistants/bodyguards), and Saeko were the only persons present, the girls having been sent to bed (Makoto with a sedative to help her sleep). All of the young adults had been clustered together in what was usually Natsuna's master suite, with a spell from Lynette keeping them from being woken (or eavesdropping).

"I couldn't tell you about this world," Lynette said tiredly, nursing a touristy drink (complete with paper umbrella), "We've only been in this dimension for a few weeks, and we've spent that time hunting for Jaeger here. The only magic users we've encountered here are either dead, or on this ship, with one outlier I'm not sure about."

"Would that outlier be a threat?" Natsuna asked more seriously.

"I don't know," Lynette said, shaking her head, before leveling a painfully serious gaze at the younger woman, "Did you know that during the start of the eclipse, there was a pitched battle in the streets of this city, one _you_ were taking part in?"

Natsuna flinched slightly at 'you,' but didn't break Lynette's gaze.

"I suppose someone messed with our memories since then?" She asked.

"Yes," Lynette said, "And they messed with _ours_ too. We're just more hardened against magical memory-modification."

"This raises another question then," Saeko said, her voice harsh and her face somewhat gaunt as she glared at Jaeger, "Are you a cat or a human?"

"I assume this is a concern for you because I've been sleeping in your daughter's bedroom for the last few months?" Jaeger said calmly, looking a little fatigued himself.

Saeko nodded jerkily.

"I used to be human," Jaeger said with a sigh, slumping slightly in his seat, "A creature far more powerful than I cursed me into the form of a cat, before binding my powers and banishing me from that Earth. Tell me Mizono-san, have you ever been physically attracted to a creature not the species you were born as?"

Saeko shook her head, more cautiously this time.

"I have now had the misfortune of experiencing that," Jaeger said, his face twisting in disgust, "If cats were _intelligent_ , it might not be so squicky, but I've been living in a body wired with completely different hormonal focus than what I had as a human. This form you see now is a magical affectation I've only been able to take on as of _today_ , and if it is dispelled or I run out of energy to sustain it, I'll revert to the feline form you're familiar with. As far as my, _ugh_ , 'sexuality' goes, human woman are currently much along the lines you might think of a cat; cute, perhaps even a 'gorgeous creature,' but nothing more and nothing less. In spite of that if you'll recall, I've made a point of being in the common areas of your home whenever either of you have been changing or bathing," Jaeger paused to take a deep breath, closing his eyes as he did so, "Can was change the subject now? Because I can promise you, as upsetting as it may be for you, it is _far_ more disturbing for me."

"Yes, let's," Caitlyn said, looking particularly pained by the subject matter, "Like Lyn said, somebody dropped a mass memory-modification spell earlier today, and that's probably why that assault team showed up at the hospital. People notice when that kind of magic gets used."

"I'd thought that was likely the cause," Natsuna said with a nod, "But why did they go after Fujiwara-san and Usagi-chan? Some form of magical ability before the memory-altering magic was used?"

"Yeah," Caitlyn said with a nod, "Lyn had me and one of the other fighters underground for healing when the spell went off, but Usagi was one of the casters still up, even if she was obviously pretty inexperienced."

"Usagi cast the spell," Jaeger said, his tone unusually harsh, "She is the reincarnation of the heir to the Moon Kingdom, and there is more power bound to her soul than any other mortal on Earth has ever likely possessed. She was trying to fix things, and wished for 'everything to be normal again.' Apparently, her idea of normal doesn't include magic, and the spell tried to enforce that."

"Considering I don't remember any of the things you're referring to," Saeko said, still somewhat stiff though her aggression had faded, "I'd say it was fairly effective."

"Mind-numbingly so in some ways," Lynette contributed, "Before the spell was cast, Beryl had no legal identity, and had spent the last however-long being possessed by a malignant metaphysical entity. Now she's apparently an established research professional at Tokyo University, and related to the Imperial Family by blood."

"As best I can tell, she'd been in that pocket dimension for thousands of years," Jaeger added, "The only way she's related to the Imperial Family, is if they're descended from her."

"Ancient history and genealogies aside," Natsuna cut in, "Based on what you know, what kind of danger are we in right here, right now?"

"Right now?" Caitlyn said, "Follow-up attack from whoever tried the first hit is the most likely danger. We need to get Beryl and all of those kids under anti-scrying Wards. If you want to make things reasonably safe, they're going to have to basically go into witness protection with magical enhancement. That assault team was pretty competent, which means they'll be smart enough to find paper trails in public records with photo ID's now that they've caught sight of who they're after."

"That's pretty extreme," Saeko said somewhat nervously, "Doesn't witness protection involve completely cutting off contact with family and friends?"

"The _attack_ was fairly extreme," Natsuna said firmly, but not harshly, "Under Japanese law, nobody can be _forced_ into witness protection, but these kinds of circumstances are exactly what it's for. We can talk about that on the trip back though, for now, what is, _right now_ , the probability of another attack?"

"Don't know," Jaeger said, shaking his head, "Too little intel, we'll have to question the Teleporter first."

"What did you do with him, anyways?" Natsuna asked Lynette.

"Bag of holding and a Bottle of Air," Lynette said with a small smirk, patting her fanny-pack as she did so, "Sucker's still shackled to an immovable rod in there, and I dropped a Sleep spell on him just to make sure he didn't start trying to break either of them."

"Well, pull 'im out," Jaeger said with a small sigh, standing and stretching as he turned to face Lynette, "The sooner we get this done with, the better."

((()))

When Leo Kazinski regained awareness of the world around him, one thought immediately came to the forefront of his mind.

 _I am so screwed._

Staring down at him, grim judgement in his eyes, was the man he'd helped Striker One shoot the chest out of earlier, sans hole in his chest. Kazinski knew, academically, that wound like that could be healed, but he'd never _seen_ it before, and he was fairly sure that the survival time without major magic was measured in seconds, rather than the minute it had been before they'd left the room with what he'd _thought_ was a corpse on the floor.

"Now," The man growled, "We're the heroes here, and you're the villain, which fortunately for you, means that we have things called 'ethics' that will keep us from just torturing whatever we want out of you."

Leo wasn't green enough to think that was wholly good news in and of itself.

" _Unfortunately_ for you," The man continued, "I'm a Telepath, so I don't _have_ to torture that out of you. You're a Psychic yourself, so you know what that means, don't you?"

Leo nodded slowly.

"Good," The man said, a grin spreading across his features, "So then we'll start with questions you might not have any trouble answering, and maybe we can get through all this without me having to punch holes in your mind. Let's start with 'Were you attacking because of the memory spell?'"

Leo nodded slowly.

"Why did it bring you to Kota Kinabalu then?" The man demanded, "Especially so quickly?"

Leo was slower to respond to the second question, studying the man's expression carefully before replying.

"You haven't realized how far-spread the effects are, have you?" Leo asked quietly, speaking for the first time since he'd been roused.

"No," The man said, his eyes narrowing, "I take it that it has gone far then?"

"You could say that," Leo said, his own tone grim, "It's affected the whole damn world. It's hard to tell, because of the effects itself, but at least half the mages and psychics in the world have forgotten they're magical at all."

((()))


	3. Chapter 3

((()))

Amongst the girls assembled, Makoto was by far the largest, and to Ami, that somehow made the way that the brunette martial artist had curled into a ball and tried to close out the world all the more disturbing. Ami had laid a blanket over the girl about an hour ago, and the only part of the Kino orphan still visible from beneath it was the top half of her face. There was some mindless light-hearted romantic comedy playing on the suite's big-screen TV, but few of the girls were paying it any attention; Rei was trying to keep Usagi from having another panic attack, Minako was busying herself with giving Artemis and Luna attention of the petting kind, and Ami herself was partially distracted by Makoto.

The rest of her was distracted with thoughts of what the adults in the next room over would be discussing. Ami was by nature a more introverted, passive sort of girl, and her conflicting desires, combined lack of knowledge about how to lend Makoto comfort, resulted in her mostly just sitting next to the larger girl and laying a hand on her shoulder.

Fortunately, even if it took several hours, eventually some of the adults decided to come and speak with them; Ami's mother, Natsuna, and Jaeger. Ami's mind froze up for a second as she tried to reconcile her memories of her (large) affectionate cat over the last few months with the muscular gaijin who was somewhere around two meters tall. The eyes though, told of the same soul even in different form, and the clear concern he was gazing at Makoto with was almost as reassuring to Ami as her mother crossing the room to give her a hug.

"How are you holding up?" Saeko asked quietly, glancing at the others in the room as she did so, "I'm sorry it took so long, but we needed to decide what to do with the prisoner."

"What did you decide on?" Ami asked faintly, turning to look up at her mother's face.

"Nothing drastic," Saeko said, an edge of hostility creeping into her voice, "We have acted with more restraint than that man deserves."

"What did you do?" Ami asked.

"We asked him some questions," Saeko said with a sigh, "Simple ones that he had no reason not to answer. None of us were happy with the answers."

"What did he say?" Ami asked.

Saeko looked at her daughter for a long moment, considering the girl's age, her maturity, and what she'd been through that day. Then Saeko told her.

((()))

"Hey Makoto," Jaeger said gently as he moved up and seated himself in front of her, "You don't look like you're doing so hot."

Makoto shivered a little under her blanket, but said nothing, not meeting Jaeger's eyes.

"Caitlyn wanted to come in and have this talk with you," Jaeger admitted somewhat wryly, "But I told her no. She has too much anger in her fighting spirit for that, and though she usually controls it well, she still doesn't see the need to remove it as a central reason to fight," Jaeger paused, taking a deep breath before abruptly changing the subject, "Did you kill him because you were angry?"

Shock, horror, then anger lanced across Makoto's face in a lightning flurry of emotion, before being replaced by grief again.

"Sorry if that was a bit crass or excessively blunt," Jaeger said with a small wince, "No, I don't think that's why that soldier died, but now you recognize that you were angry too, don't you?"

Makoto nodded faintly.

"I only know you and the situation you were in so well," Jaeger said, reaching over to gently lay a hand on the tall girl's shoulder, "But I think I know why he's dead. First, because he decided to attack a school girl in a hospital. Second, because you love your friends, and were protecting them. Third, because he wasn't quite as tough as he and you both thought, and you accidentally hit him harder than you really wanted to. Does that sound about right?"

Makoto hesitated for a long moment, and then nodded faintly. Jaeger favored her with a bittersweet smile, then leaned over to wrap her in a hug. Makoto started slightly at the unexpected gesture of comfort, unaccustomed to such physical contact both as a matter of culture and of being an orphan, but after a long moment, relaxed and began to quietly cry.

Then a .50 caliber sniper round tore through the cabin window, smashing into Jaeger's head; his telekinetic barrier partially deflected the round, but it still tore half his jaw off. The second round took off the rest of his head.

Makoto started screaming.

((()))

A swarm of shadowy beasts swarmed up out of the water, rapidly scaling the cruise ship's flanks, before invading through open portholes, hatches, or simply sliding over onto the top deck. The passengers and crew erupted into screams, and most began running around in a blind panic. A handful of Natsuna's men opened fire on the creatures, but bullets simply passed directly through them. The smoke-like appendages that the shadow-beings had, on the other hand, were more than capable of inflicting injury upon the shooters.

((()))

"This is very bad," Lynette said flatly as she watched Caitlyn transform into full Were, and hurl herself out the cabin door, immediately beginning to tear into the shadow-creatures, while moving towards the girls' room herself.

What she found there caused her face to turn white; half the girls were screaming, and half of Jaeger's head was spread across the room. Lynette bit back a curse as she darted over to study the shape-shifter's body.

Once she stood directly over Jaeger's body, the next sniper round took Lynette through the left shoulder, tearing the entire arm off, the shock of the wound instantly driving her unconscious.

((()))

It took almost five minutes for the top deck of the cruise liner to fully clear, leaving just Caitlyn in her were-form, and the shadows she was fighting. The sniper firing on the boat picked her as his next target, bit Caitlyn was far, far tougher than Lynette, and unlike Jaeger, she was both in motion, and aware of the threat. An entire clip was emptied before he hit her even once, and though it pierced her thigh, she ignored the wound, both supernatural durability and the sheer size of her were-form degrading the damage from the .50 caliber weapon.

By the time the sniper had finished reloading, and properly zeroed in on her again, she had slain the last of the shadows, and it only took one more hit before she decided to flee below decks.

Unfortunately, the 'villa' that her family and the Senshi were in, rested atop the ship's forecastle.

((()))

When Striker One stormed into the room the Senshi were hunkered down in, he found conditions to be exactly as he desired; hostiles dead or completely disabled, clear lines of fire available, and his mission objective directly in sight. He ran a second visual check of the room, before shifting out of the doorway so that Striker Four could move in behind him. Already visibly shocky, the tall brunette martial artist froze when Striker Four entered the room, her eyes widening.

"You!" Striker One snarled, storming across the cabin and seizing Usagi by her hair, "You're coming with us."

Incoherent babbling shot through with tears was the only response the blonde managed, but Striker One was more than willing to simply use main force to drag her out of the room while Striker Four covered his withdrawal.

None of the girls dared move, and Saeko was too busy trying to keep Lynette from bleeding out to interfere.

((()))

"Dammit!" Striker Two shouted as he advanced down into the liner's spacious internal decks, "She's done a runner again!"

"Reroute to release Striker Three," Striker Five replied, "What shadows remain will assist in your search as they link up with you. Be warned, the Werewolf is somewhere below decks as well."

"Affirmative."

((()))

Kazinski, unlike most everybody else on the ship, was completely oblivious to the attack right until the moment that Striker Two smashed open the door to the closet he was being kept in.

"Handcuffs?" His rescuer said, "Really?"

"They block teleportation, asshole," Kazinski growled, "You think I'd still be here if they weren't magically reinforced?"

"Fair enough," Striker Two said with a shrug, before trying to cut Kazinski loose from the rod the handcuffs had been looped around.

Emphasis on tried.

"What the hell?" Two growled when both the chain of the handcuffs, and the rod, didn't deform in the slightest under the weight of Two's blade.

"They called it an 'Immovable Rod,'" Kazinski said with a sigh, "The healer was the one who activated it, I'm not sure if the others can."

"Well, shit." Two growled, "Five, you hear that?"

((()))

"Roger that, Five," Striker Four called, before turning to backtrack to the room where the OpFor healer was.

With Striker Three still locked down, Four was the only other active teleporter on the team, and as a mage, rather than a Psychic, his endurance was sharply limited, whereas Three's was nearly unlimited. In short, they were limited to conventional means of extraction if they couldn't get three loose, and with an entire US Navy Battlegroup within twenty miles, that was just begging for disaster. They had their recall pendants, of course, but those would only move them personally, whereas Striker Three's teleportation could move pretty much anything.

It was why a kid with so little experience had been pushed into the team in the first place.

When Striker Four reached the small villa atop the liner where the girls and several of the women were still hunkered down, he found that, fortunately, the healer was still alive, even if the mundane doctor hadn't managed to bring her back to consciousness yet.

"You," He ordered, pointing to the doctor, who didn't even turn to look up at him, "Get her awake, now."

"I couldn't if I wanted to," She snapped, "In case you haven't noticed, this is a cruise liner, not a hospital, it's not like I have stimulants readily available to work with."

Striker Four snorted, rolled his eyes, and leaned down to drop a healing spell of his own on the disarmed woman. Her eyes snapped open, and then Striker Four's world erupted in fire.

((()))

Having your head shot off hurts even more than having your chest shot open. Neither is fun, I recommend neither for amateurs, 'don't try this at home kids,' and oh gosh there has to be a better way to gain a level up.

Even when it didn't kill you, getting holes blown through usually-vital organs got old really damn fast.

But oh! Having a level what a thing it is! Raised Attack, raised Dodge, picking up a first Martial Art up to Expert (Kempo, for low prerequisites in more ways than one), an Advanced Martial Art (unfortunately but unsurprisingly only the first tier of it), Ki-powered Inhumanity, Presence Extrusion, and Use of Necessary Energy.

So. Now I could affect energy constructs with my bare hands, dump far more fatigue into a single action, and do things like run, jump, or not sleep a lot more before it had any effect on me. I was also 35% better at hitting things, and 25% at not getting hit at things, but I needed to amp that up still further; time to unleash the Psionics. I dumped all four of my ability points into Willpower, raising my base Psychic Potential by fifty points. That should help change the picture a bit.

I then 'pushed the button' that ended the level-up process, and found, to my considerable pleasure, that doing so restored all Life Points, Zeon, and Psychic Points.

((()))

A cone of fire erupted from the villa's roof, sending metal, plastic, and bone shrapnel blasting through the air, as well as scorched ribbons of Striker Four's flesh. Unlike when Makoto had struck the Praetorian down, this time there was nowhere near enough left for a resuscitation; everything above Striker Four's pelvis had been scattered across the night sky.

Dammit, Striker Five thought as she stared at the ship through her sniper scope, Can't these people do anything right?

((()))

Lynette Gates was not by disposition, training, or skillset, primarily a combatant. The field of magics she had begun to study once the young man now known as 'Jaeger' had entered her life, nature magics, wasn't focused on combat application either, but just because a bear didn't hunt humans by preference, didn't mean one wouldn't maul the hell out of you if you pissed it off. Everyone who lived in an environment that also hosted bears knew that the one thing you never, ever did, was get between a mother bear and her cubs. It was knowledge so common that it had become axiomatic.

While not a bear by birth, Lynette gaining the ability to transform into one had not come as any particular kind of surprise to those who knew her, and if she hadn't already killed him, Striker Four would have found himself facing an enraged Dire Polar Bear. A Dire Polar Bear short one arm, but that didn't tend to make much difference to a 'squishy wizard' stuck in close combat against such a foe. Given that she'd already blasted her foe through the ceiling, Lynette immediately turned her attention to where Jaeger's body lay; unlike the hostile, she had good reason to think Jaeger could survive having significant-and-usually-important parts of his body blown away.

Jaeger was already leaping to his feet, his head doing a good impression of never having gone anywhere in the first place, and he looked pissed.

"What did I miss?" Jaeger asked as he swept his eyes about the room, noting the blood, bone, and brain matter spattered halfway across the room from where he stood, and that Usagi was missing.

"The-" Saeko began, but she was cut off by another sniper round crashing through the window and into Jaeger's head, again, smashing through in through one cheek, through his upper teeth, and out the other, spattering blood and tooth-chips across the room.

The girls started screaming again, but Jaeger just twisted in place, this time the second round failing to do more than clip him in the shoulder. Lynette rushed across the room, slapping Jaeger with a Regeneration spell, but the hunter himself was otherwise occupied.

((()))

Four shots, low-spread, each angling slightly differently. Some quick mental math (for someone with Tesla-level mental processing power), allowed me to backtrack the Sniper's position with an error factor of less than a meter.

Close enough.

Swiftly moving through mental menus, I added a new Psionic Power to my list, tore the freshly-deceased corpse's shortsword from his sheath to use as ammunition, and let loose.

((()))

The cone of fire got Striker One's attention, and he turned back towards the top deck; as he dragged the hysterical blonde back 'outdoors,' he gained a perfectly clear line of sight to watch as a lance of white-hot something tore out of the much-abused ship-top villa, moving fast enough that it was effectively instantaneous to human perception. The sonic boom struck an instant later, bowling Usagi off of her feet, and in his shock, Striker One lost his grip on her hair.

The lance of molten steel had struck Striker Five's overwatch position at the Port Authority building, stabbing clear through the room she had nested in, shattering every window within thirty feet with its sonic boom.

Deafened by the attack, Striker One failed to hear the Werewolf approaching him from behind, but when her paws struck the deck, he felt her approach, and reflexively dove to the side. The dive saved him from being run down by rampaging Werewolf, but she was easily able to swip the blonde Strike One had dropped up off the deck, before leaping over the side of the ship with her.

"Well, this op has gone to hell in a handbasket," he growled.

Then a massive polar bear burst out of the villa where he'd first recovered his target, the man whose head had been blown off by Striker Five's anti-material rounds riding on its back, nothing but a ring of blood around his neck indicating he'd ever even been injured.

"Oh come ON!" Striker One shouted, "We've killed you twice now!"

"You didn't check for a pulse," The man shouted back as the bear stalked across the deck, barely audible to Striker One's mostly-deafened ears, "Hell, did you forget that proper corpses stop bleeding?"

"Bug out," Striker Five gasped over the comm, "The bear incinerated Four, and Two still hasn't been able to break Three free. Operation's FUBAR."

Strike One gritted his teeth in frustration, but obeyed the order, and mentally triggered the recall function on his amulet, disappearing from the cruise liner's deck.

((()))

Port Authority and Kota Kinabalu police forces were aboard the liner within a half hour, and by request, a marine platoon from both the Malaysians and the Americans boarded to ensure security against further attacks. There were more than a few traumatized passengers, the five girls who had been in the villa more than any others, dozens of injuries associated with panicked flight had been suffered, and several of Natsuna's bodyguards and other subordinates had been killed.

In all, it was a very bad night for those aboard ship.

Ironically enough, the individual aboard ship the least distraught or injured over the whole affair, was the prisoner still sitting in one of the closets, dimensionally handcuffed to an Immovable Rod, both of which had their releases keyed to specific individuals.

Mostly, Leo Kazinski was bored, though he had the good grace to recognize that he was very fortunate to be such, given the circumstances.

((()))

"What are you going to do?" Caitlyn, returned to human form, asked quietly as she glanced over at Jaeger, before returning her gaze to the huddled group of girls the cat was staring at.

"I'm not sure yet," Jaeger said, sounding beyond exhausted, and the splayed-out posture of his feline body projecting that, "It's not an easy thing for them to go through, or things really, considering what started this all."

"What started it today?" Caitlyn asked, slowly edging closer to Jaeger as she spoke, "Or what started it months ago, when you first came to this dimension?"

"Today," Jaeger said with a weary sigh, before reaching up with one paw to rub at his short forehead, "I'm not ready to even start processing the last few months of crap. Speaking of which, where have you and Lyn been, and how did you find me?"

"We've been through a lot of Planes," Cait said, shuddering faintly at an unfortunate memory, "Trying to track you. Eventually, we had to go through one of the Barrier Realms in order to pass into this multiverse without our assorted powers going haywire on us due to magical laws subtly different between the two dimensions."

Caitlyn paused for a moment and shuddered again, inching still-closer to Jaeger, before she pressed on.

"Going by what Lyn said, you must have travelled through the same Barrier Realm we did, which is crazy. That place was crazy. How did you survive it?"

"I almost didn't," Jaeger said, twitching a whisker at Caitlyn in place of a shrug, "If Ami hadn't picked me up and gotten me to a vet, I might not have. Did you find out about the Dragon's Curse?"

"Yeah," Caitlyn said, shaking her head sadly, "As if what fumbles did to you wasn't bad enough. You have a talent for pissing off powerful people, you know?"

"Trying to fix any broken authority system always does," Jaeger replied sadly, "There is always someone who benefits from it being broken; if there wasn't, somebody being hurt by it would fix the damn thing."

"Yeah," Caitlyn said with a shrug, "I suppose it does."

Silence passed between them for a few moments.

"So what did you do with Harry before you left?" Jaeger eventually asked, thinly-veiled curiosity and concern running through his tone.

"We sent Harry off to live with the Fullers," Caitlyn said with a snort, "I'd like to see fumbles find him there. Then I killed off as many of the remaining Death Eaters as I could, while Lynette filled Hogwarts and the Ministry with as many permanent Zones of Truth as she could. After that we left, originally intending to return with you to finish things up, but by the time we caught up with your trace, you weren't in Japan anymore. We ran into a couple of kids that had worked with you while in Fuyuki, and that's where we heard about the Dragon. Lyn spent a few days helping them clean things up and do some healing, while I tried to find some trace of the Dragon, but no dice."

"If you failed to find that Dragon," Jaeger interjected with a snort, "Then that was a blessing, not a curse. It would most likely have torn you in two for 'insolence,' if it deigned to acknowledge you at all."

"Whatever," Cait said a bit grouchily, "Anyways, Lynette managed a Dimension Shift spell, which we used to start trying to track you, but... well, it took a long time to get the hang of that, and by then, your trail seemed to be just about gone."

"Even through the Barrier Realm?" Jaeger asked,

"Especially through the Barrier Realm," Cait said while rolling her eyes, "Like I said, that place was crazy. When I asked some of its denizens about a cat, they mostly just attacked me, though a couple of them actually answered politely. Once we found your egress point, Lynette brought us through to this reality, and after that, it was just a matter of scry-and-find."

"How long did it take you to catch up with me?" Jaeger asked.

"About six months, from when you first went missing," Cait said with a shrug.

"Six months," Jaeger echoed quietly, "Seems like a lot longer than that."

"Have you been stuck as a cat the whole time?" Cait asked, carefully closing the last of the distance between them

"Until about a week ago, yeah," Jaeger said quietly, "Being without opposable thumbs sucked."

"Yeah," Cait said quietly, her tone and her eyes carrying far more weight than the word itself did, as she reached over and pulled the enormous cat into her lap, then began to stroke him gently, "I bet that did suck."

"Shit," Jaeger said hoarsely, "The girls need attention a lot more than I do."

"Sure," Cait said with quiet sarcasm, "They just saw someone's head get blown off. You just had your head blown off."

"I got better," Jaeger retorted faintly, instinctively rolling the words into a british accent.

"Yeah," Cait said softly as she wrapped her arms around Jaeger and pulled him into a tight embrace, "I bet you did."

She was still holding him when soldiers came and politely escorted the lot of them out of the bloodstained villa.

((()))

Saeko was... overwhelmed. She wasn't sure how else to put it. Physically, she was tired, more because of repeated adrenaline rush/crash cycling than any particular level of exertion, but the sheer mental strain of dealing with all the things that had happened since she had woken up that day. Or, according to what Lynette Gates had told her, since Usagi's spell had changed everybody's memories that afternoon.

When the attack had ended, she'd first intended to help Lynette deal with the survivors amongst Natsuna's armed men, but the woman had used magic to restore the injured men and woman, after first regrowing her own arm. Gates had asked her to see to the more mildly injured passengers, and she had, but with help from the other doctors either aboard ship, or who'd been brought on board, that had barely taken an hour, and Saeko felt somewhat like it had been more to give her something to do that would make her feel useful, than anything else.

In the end, she had treated her last patient right where the whole thing had started, as Sakurada Natsuna had been found unconscious underneath one of the couches in the villa, a large bruise across her scalp where a piece of debris from one explosion or another had struck her. There was no sign of skull fracture or other serious trauma, so all Saeko could really do was keep an eye on the woman until she woke up, or send her off to a hospital if that took too long.

Saeko hated feeling useless.

((()))

For Lynette, the aftermath of the attack at the dock was all too familiar in tone. Jaeger's engagements with his various adversaries tended to leave similar messes, right down to the modest casualties, but low-to-nil fatalities, amongst bystanders. It was working relief for such situations that had let her learn so much about healing magic, as well as given her what little combat experience she had.

Lyn had always been a healer before a fighter, but working for years in Chicago, then seeing how quickly the city's criminal underworld (magical and non) had changed after Jaeger's crusade, had shown her just how useful preventative measures could be for Trauma Medicine. It was hard to remember that, when she was in the middle of dealing with the immediate aftermath of violent conflict she had taken part in, and she sometimes spent time reading up on the history of career criminals as a result, to remind herself the sort of things she was fighting to prevent.

It helped, mostly, and time spent in prayer and scripture made up the rest.

Still, that night, once she had finished healing with magic those who could be restored no other way, saving at least three lives, though five of Natsuna's men had still died before she could reach them, likely as soon as they found combat, from what she could see, she found one more task awaiting her. Someone had to attend to the Senshi.

((()))

"Usagi-chan?" Minako gently called as she helped the girl seat herself comfortably, "Are you hurt?"

Usagi shook her head faintly.

"I can tell that he pulled on your hair quite a bit," Minako said with a wince as she gently massaged the girl's scalp, "But I don't feel or see any blood, I don't think he actually got any out."

Usagi shook her head again, but still didn't say anything. Minako winced; she hadn't known the blonde for long, but while she had, the girl had been quite a motormouth. Turning her attention briefly to her other new friends, she winced slightly at the way Makoto was shaking. Ami had simply curled into a ball, and was fairly clearly in shock, though a stone-faced Rei was stroking her and muttering soothing words in her ear.

For a moment, Minako began to get up to help the tall brunette, but as soon as she began to move away, Usagi's hand snaked out to snatch hers, and clasp it with desperate strength.

"Okay Usagi-chan," Minako said quietly as she rreseated herself, "I'll stay with you."

((()))

Four marines ended up guarding the Japenese girls; it would have been one, but more than a few of the passengers and crew had seen Striker One trying to drag Usagi away, and that marked her as a Person of Interest. One attempt had already been made to take her aside for some questioning, but between the fact that it would have required physically untangling her from the group huddle the girls were in, and that Caitlyn had growled at the one soldier who looked willing to attempt such a thing, that had been deferred until an officer could come down to handle the situation personally.

Two Malaysians Marines, Private Bambang and Sergeant Cahaya, stood guard with two American Marines, Private Steven Miller and Corporal Tuah Yang, the last of whom, was of Malaysian descent, and spoke the language fluently, the reason for him being assigned to that part of the world. None of them particularly expected further conflict, but all remained watchful nonetheless, taking rotations wherein one watched the girls, one watched the young woman holding some sort of massive furry creature, and the other two watched the corridors. The Senshi had been moved to one of the second-berst cabins on the ship; there was one other unoccupied cabin on par with what they had been staying in before, but given it, like the thoroughly-trashed room now cordoned off for forensics to study, was actually a villa built into the ship's forecastle superstructure, leaving it far too exposed.

"Sergeant," Private Miller asked, nodding respectfully to the Malaysian NCO without taking his eyes off of Caitlyn, "I can't say I'm familiar with the local wildlife, can you tell me what that creature she's cuddling with is?"

"It is not of Malaysia," Sergeant Cahaya replied in moderately-accented English, "Nor any other nation of Borneo or the surrounding islands, unless it is so obscure that I have not heard of it before. Perhaps it is a pet she brought aboard ship with her?"

"Caitlyn Gates isn't a registered passenger with the cruise liner," Corporal Yang put in, "And I doubt that the ship would permit such a pet aboard, unless the person bringing it had considerable influence or very large sums of money."

"It is possibly the Superintendant General's, then," Cahaya said thoughtfully, "She and her party are on this cruise in part as a reward for, in part as a celebration of, a domestic terrorism case she solved that they were targets of. These girls appear to be cursed with misfortune this year."

"Agreed, sir," Private Bambang said with a nod, "I heard some of the police officers talking; they were the targets of the attack on the hospital earlier today."

"Well shit," Yang said with some feeling, visibly somewhat edgy, "If someone was already willing to attack them twice in a single day, that makes another attack more than just vaguely likely. Do the-"

"Shut up," Caitlyn hissed from across the room, before standing and turning to walk closer to the girls, still carrying the cat, "Some of the girls understand English, and they do not need something else freaking them out."

"Sorry Miss," Yang said with a wince, glancing over at Sergeant Cahaya, who cleared his throat to speak as well.

"I am Sergeant Cahaya," He said, his tone somewhat formal, "I understand you are Caitlyn Gates, American Citizen on vacation here in Kota Kinabalu?"

"Yes," Caitlyn said, nodding her head, and shifting slightly so that the creature could climb up onto her shoulders, "Though the vacation will most likely be cut short."

"Then I would like to ask-" Cahaya began, before suddenly cutting off, his eyes going wide, and blurting out an altogether different question than he had intended, "Is that a cat?"

"Yes," Caitlyn said with a small smirk, "This is Boss, or Jaeger as he's been called lately, an important friend of mine. If you're wondering how he came to be here, he's technically registered as the Mizuno family's pet, though he's really more of a guardian than a pet."

"A guardian?" Cahaya said curiously, quickly regaining his equilibrium, "There was talk amongst the other passengers that have been interviewed, of Miss Tsukino being rescued by an enormous white beast. I meant to ask if you knew anything of it, as you were with these children when we boarded. I suppose if one of the floodlights had been striking this 'cat's' fur, he might have been mistaken for a much brighter coloration."

"That wasn't Boss," Caitlyn said, shaking her head, "Though it's the sort of thing he'd do."

"So you do know something about this creature we've been told about?" Corporal Yang asked.

"Yes," Caitlyn said.

A long moment passed while the soldiers waited for Caitlyn to elaborate, but she didn't.

"You don't look young enough to play a teenager's word-games," eventually said with a hint of exasperation, "Would you please tell us about this creature that is said to have rescued Miss Tsukino?"

"That was actually me," Caitlyn said with a shrug, "After I cleared the top deck of attackers, I had to flee below to get out of the sniper's line of fire. I kept an eye out though, and when the hostile trying to drag Usagi away was distracted by our villa getting its roof blown out, I saw an opportunity to strike, so I took it."

"Excuse me, Miss Gates," Cahaya said flatly, "But according to the reports we have, the man who had seized Miss Usagi was armed with an assault shotgun, as well as a sword, and wore heavy body armor. Why would you attack such a man alone and unarmed?"

"Were you unarmed at the time?" Yang chipped in.

"I used only my body as a weapon," Caitlyn said, raising her hands, palm-down, to show the heavy callouses over her knuckles, "And I attacked because I knew I could have taken him. If he hadn't heard me coming, I'd have gotten him too. As it was, I decided getting Usagi away was more important than putting him down, so I took her over the edge of the deck with me instead."

Disbelieving stares met Caitlyn's story, but she just smiled at the soldiers.

((()))

"Hello, your Highness," A smooth voice called, and Beryl flinched, turning within the cargo container she'd hidden in to see a...

Really a rather handsome man who wore what seemed to be some sort of formal dress uniform, complete with a cape. She'd never seen it before, nor did she recognize the man, and she was certain she'd have recognized something so striking.

"I see you do not remember me," The man said with a nod, his expression thoughtful as he considered her, "And clearly are afraid. Tell me, do you remember anything of magic?"

Beryl shook her head slightly, trying to ignore just how dashing the man looked.

"Unfortunate," He said with a sigh, "But hardly surprising at this time. I suppose if any deserves to leave past memories to rest, it is you," He paused for a moment, before standing to attention, and saluting her with a fist across his chest, "I am Nephrite, on of the four Grand Generals of the Earth Kingdom, and apparently its last survivor. Though you do not remember it, in a life long past, were served the same king, and were acquiantances, though not quite friends. In accordance with the gallantry befitting my rank and position, I shall see you safely back to your allies tonight, should it please you."

He bowed formally to her, and offered her his hand.

"Will you accompany me, milady?" He asked with a smile.

Blushing, Beryl took his hand after only a moment's hesitation.

((()))

"-That's not even plaus-" Corporal Yang's words were cut off by a shower of glowing motes erupting from the center of the room; when they cleared, Fujiwara Beryl stood in the cabin, her arm linked with that of a tall man wearing a formal uniform.

"Nephrite," the cat resting on Caitlyn's shoulders growled, before leaping down to the deck and standing at guard between the newly-arrived man and the huddle of (now mostly-sleeping) girls in the cabin.

"Sir Jaeger," Nephrite greeted with a respectful nod, "I deliver the Lady Beryl to you in good health. Is this vessel secured?"

"The only potential foe in the area right now with enough power to threaten it," Jaeger said warily, "Is yourself. What are your intentions?"

"My intentions?" Nephrite replied with a rogueish grin, "Why, to take you up on the suggestion you delivered to her highness and my comrades during our visit to our fortress some time ago. Do see to it that the Lady Beryl is safely returned to her home, would you?"

"You can count on it," Jaeger growled, before twisting, morphing, distorting, and growing up into his human form, and stepping forward so he could stare Nephrite directly in the eye, "Don't make me come looking for you."

"You need not worry about that," Nephrite said, his grin intensifying as he gracefully disengaged from Beryl, before passing her hand off to Jaeger, who carefully tugged her around to stand beside him, "The whole world will know where I am, soon enough."

And then he disappeared in a burst of light, just as abruptly as he had arrived.

((()))

AN: Because I forgot to post last week, I'll be posting another chapter right after this one.


	4. Chapter 4

((()))

"This is _bad_ ," Natsuna said grumpily as she held an ice-pack to her forehead, "Is there _anything_ to stop them from pulling something like this off all over again at any time?"

"Not particularly," Jaeger, still in feline form, said with a shake of his head, "The only thing really stopping them right now, is likely manpower issues. Their second assault didn't call in a second, much less third or fourth, squad, so we can assume that they're hard-pressed for personnel."

"If what that Joe fellow told us is true," Natsuna said with a shrug, which was followed by a pained wince, "About all the magic-users' memories being affected as well, what will that likely mean for their available manpower?"

"Well," Jaeger said, pulling himself into a very 'proper' seated position as he spoke, "There will have been at least a few locations where anyone present was shielded from the affect due to the properties of the location itself. A ward strong enough to protect against a wish effect as powerful as Usagi's will be very rare, however, so that will be what could, in non-magical cases, be a minority so small as to be considered statistically irrelevant. The problem is, even users who are only moderately powerful may have a particularly potent ability or two capable of really screwing things up for us, like high-endurance long-range teleportation."

"I take it that's how they got their strike team to us so quickly in the first place?" Natsuna asked.

"Most likely," Jaeger said with a nod, "And it's also most likely that either the mage Lynette killed, or the Psychic we've captured, was their teleporter. Given what I know of the two different approaches to the same result, and our captive's apparent junior rank and lower level of experience, I'm guessing he's the primary move."

"Okay," Natsuna said, before nodding at Caitlyn as the younger woman entered the room, "So, back to the manpower issue?"

"Beyond the small number in protected locations," Jaeger continued, shifting slightly on the couch he was seated on as Caitlyn sat down beside him, "You will also have those who actively ward their minds against interference. I suspect our captive is one in this category; even low-level psychics can 'build' additional protections for their minds, though they increase in accordance with they psychic's power. There are also spells for such things, but they're more esoteric, more demanding, or both, meaning that fewer magic-users will have been capable of protecting their minds.

"That leaves us with, most likely, about a quarter to half of psychics, and a tenth to a quarter of all mystics, who resisted the affect due to their own prepared protections. More probably _had_ mental wards, but were overwhelmed by the sheer power of Usagi's spell. After those, we come to the two most dangerous groups. First, those who are simply so powerful that they were readily able to resist the wish outright, and second, those whose will is so potent that they could resist it."

Jaeger paused for a moment as Caitlyn reached over to start scratching behind his ears.

"Unsurprisingly, these two groups tend to overlap a great deal, and probably comprise the leaders of the various magical factions throughout the world. Most of them will also likely be egomaniacs, now _pissed off_ egomaniacs, who will be looking for whoever dared try to meddle with their minds."

"So basically," Natsuna said dourly, "We're dealing with a group of pissed-off archmages, and any number of minions. What level would you say the group we already fought was at?"

"They weren't archmage-level," Jaeger said, his attempts to shake his head interrupted by Caitlyn's continued skritching, "But they were high-up enough to have resisted in their own right, via either magic or psychic powers. To make a comparison, they're special forces, but not Delta Force."

"That is _such_ an American comparison to make," Natsuna said with a faint smile, "I know what you mean by it, but I must warn you that most people in the East will not."

"I'm tired _,_ "Jaeger said with a shrug, "I fall back on what comes readily to me. It could have just as easily been a Lord of the Rings comparison."

"And again," Natsuna said, her smile growing slightly, "Most who don't speak English have not read those books."

"Eh," Jaerger shrugged again, displacing Caitlyn's fingers back up to the base of his ears, "If the timeline hasn't been changed too much, the movies should start coming out in a few years, they'll get it then."

"If the _timeline hasn't changed too much?_ " Natsuna ground out, suddenly deadly serious, "You're from the _future?_ "

"Yes and no," Jaeger said, some surprise showing at her unexpectedly forceful reaction, "I'm from a different, mostly-parallel reality. It was 2010 when I was taken from there, and I arrived in Caitlyn and Lynette's home reality in the late eighties."

Natsuna opened her mouth to speak, reconsidered, closed it, and then just stared at Jaeger with clear disapproval.

"What?" The cat said, some irritation showing in his own tone, "It's not like I've had the opportunity to sit down for a long, multi-day debrief with you."

Natsuna frowned, and sighed again before looking away.

"Don't mind me," She said sadly, "I'm just cranky because some of my men were killed. Kami know it was a miracle that more people didn't die, but they're always so _eager_ to do something stupidly dangerous if they think it will protect me."

"That's a damn good reason to be cranky," Jaeger said with a small wince, before gently pushing Caitlyn's hand away with one paw, and turning to look up at the young woman, "What brings you here?"

"Lynette and Saeko are with the girls now," Caitlyn said, shifting slightly in her seat, "And I didn't think either of you would approve of me being the one to try to comfort Makoto."

"You're probably right," Jaeger said with a wince, before turning back to Natsuna, "Do you want us to send for someoone? Do you need some time alone?"

"Some time alone would probably be for the best," Natsuna said sadly, "Those whom I would normally seek comfort with are no longer available."

The dimensional transients withdrew from the cabin quietly, respecting her wishes.

"What do we do next?" Caitlyn asked quietly as she carried Jaeger up towards the liner's top deck.

"Strategically speaking," Jaeger replied, "We need to take the initiative. We've probably got at least eight or twelve hours while our foes analyze what they've learned from these attacks, and try to formulate a more appropriate response, and possibly quite a bit more than that, but there's no way to be certain as yet."

"They _have_ seen most of our tricks by this point," Caitlyn pointed out.

"Yes and no," Jaeger said, shaking his head slightly, "I'm not as versatile as I used to be, what the Dragon did ultimately cost me a _lot_ of power, but the only offensive power they've seen me use thus far is basically a Psychic Rail Gun. Speaking of which, do you know Balance On The Sky?"

Caitlyn nodded.

"Then let's head over to the sniper's nest I crashed," Jaeger said as they moved through a hatch out into the open night air, craning his head around to stare into the night, "It looks like the forensics teams are finished, and I want to see the aftermath for myself."

"I assume we're trying to not be noticed?" Caitlyn asked.

Jaeger nodded, and Caitlyn sighed. While there were no longer any police or port authority people directly on-site in the building, there were still plenty patrolling the area, not to mention the actual soldiers, and it took her a good twenty minutes to work her way across from the ship without being noticed. Once they reached the shattered room though, she decided that the trip had been quite worth the trouble.

Most obviously, and visible from well outside the building, was that all the windows on that face had been shattered. The room where the sniper had been itself, a small office, was missing most of both its outer and inner walls; force of Jaeger's assault had actually torn clean through the building, putting progressively-smaller holes through the next office, then the far wall beyond that.

"No chance of recovering the sword then," Jaeger commented as he nudged Caitlyn into walking further into the office, "If it even survived."

'Balance on the Sky' was the name of a ki-manipulation technique that allowed the young woman to literally walk on the air. It bore many uses (such as fighting flying opponents on more even terms), but the one Jaeger was most interested in for the time being, was being able to move about the crime scene without disturbing it. No need to make the job of legitimate local authorities any more difficult than it already was, after all.

"That was quite a trick," Caitlyn admitted as she studied the destroyed office, "It almost deafened me, even though I was in were-form."

"Look," Jaeger said, nodding towards a discolored spray of blood along the floor, "What do you think?"

"Not much here," Caitlyn commented as she stepped down to just above the floor, "It's more a thin speckling than anything else, but that's not exactly surprising given the speed of the projectile. Hypersonic?"

"Yeah," Jaeger said, "Something like Mach seventeen with the amount of power I pumped into it."

"Yeah," Caitlyn echoed, "Probably vaporized more blood than you took out. Whoever the sniper was..." Caitlyn trailed off for a moment as she bent over and breathed in deeply, scenting the blood, "Human female, whoever she was, she had to have been packing some pretty heavy defensive magics not to have been gibbed by this. Beyond that, even counting the speed of the projectile, there's not enough spray here to have taken her out with it."

"I agree," Jaeger said with a nod, "Every member we've fought so far has been damn tough. She'll be back again later, and I'm betting she'll either set her sniper's roost somewhere _much_ further away, or not bother with one at all."

Caitlyn paused for a moment to stare out the hole that had pierced through the entire building.

"I'm going with 'not bothering,'" She said.

Leo Kazinski briefly felt a sense of relief when the door to his 'cell' opened, and rather than a military interrogator, the healer who had originally cuffed him entered the room.

Then he saw the look in her eyes.

"Your 'friends,'" Lynette calmly explained to the captured man, "Shot the head off of a young man I consider something between a little brother and a favored nephew, attempted to kidnap a barely-teenaged girl, killed several police officers, and attacked a group of civilians with a swarm of summoned creatures."

Leo winced.

"I would suggest that you consider," Lynette continued, " _Very carefully_ , whom you wish to associate yourself with as this conflict continues. I can see that you are not a man wholly without conscience, but it appears that those with which you have associated _are_."

Leo said nothing in response.

"Right now," Lynette said, "The Malaysian Marines, the Kota Kinabalu Port Authority, and the Kota Kinabalu Police, are all arguing over who should take custody of you. It probably won't be resolved until someone in their upper government with real authority makes a decision, but I can tell you this much, you _won't_ like the treatment you get in their hands. You were part of an attack on a hospital, you aren't carrying any identity, and I very much doubt any nation will claim you if you try to state it. I'm willing to be though, that if you decide to cooperate, the Superintendant General of the TMPD, or maybe one of the American flag officers, would be willing to take custody of you, and since we're technically in international territory here at the port, they'd actually be able to do that, so long as it's done before the Malaysians decide to move you."

Lynette opened the hatch, and turned to leave.

"Choose wisely," She said before she left.

"Wondered if we'd be seein' you again," Revy called as Caitlyn boarded the _Black Lagoon_ , Jaeger riding on her shoulders in feline form, "Who's the chick?"

Jaeger blinked, surprised for a moment as he realized that Revy was looking directly at _him_ , with a clear expectation that the 'cat' would speak.

"This is Caitlyn," Jaeger said, eyeing Revy curiously, "An old friend. The Port Authority giving you any trouble?"

"They demanded we let them inspect the ship," Revy said with a casual shrug, "But it's not like we're carrying anything _illegal_."

 _'This time,'_ was left unsaid, but all those present heard it clearly nonetheless.

"Speaking of carrying," Jaeger said as he jumped down to the deck of the speedy torpedo boat, "How much would you charge to move about two dozen people to Tokyo, maximum speed, moderate possibility of attack en-route?"

"That depends," Revy said with a shrug, before leaning forward to stare down at the cat, "Dutch'll make the call, but he'll want to know how many of the 'people' are like _you._ "

"Ahem," Caitlyn half-said, half cleared her throat, glaring at Revy as she did so, and moving forward to stand directly behind Jaeger, nearly invading Revy's personal space as she did so.

"What's your problem?" Revy asked, straightening up and directing a confused look at the other girl.

"I don't like people inferring Jaeger isn't a person," Caitlyn snapped.

Revy recoiled slightly, looking up and down for a moment between the human woman and the facepalming cat, before a slow smile seeped across her face.

"You're sweet on him!" Revy declared with a laugh, reaching out to slap Caitlyn on the shoulder.

Her hand didn't go quite as far as she'd intended; Caitlyn moved with inhuman speed, snatching Revy's half-gloved hand in her own, and spit the mercenary with a stern glare.

"Don't touch me," Caitlyn said flatly.

For a moment, Revy's hackles rose, and she felt her instinctive response to a challenge rise up, but then she caught sight of something in the girl's eyes that made her hesitate for a moment.

"Girls, stop," Jaeger interrupted flatly, "You're both pretty, you're both badasses. If you want to have a pissing match, wait until we can do it somewhere that collateral damage won't matter."

" _Her?_ " Revy said slightly disbelievingly as she yanked her arm free from Caitlyn's grip, "She's not even armed!"

"Do you remember a white-furred werewolf from yesterday?" Jaeger asked, twisting up into his human form and placing himself in between them.

"Yeah?" Revy said, stepping carefully back so she wouldn't have to crane her neck in order to look Jaeger in the eye.

"That was Caitlyn," Jaeger said flatly, "Now let's go talk to Dutch. My group needs to move _fast_ if we want to avoid further trouble."

"He's on the bridge," Revy said absently, turning to lead them aft, "What kind of currency do you pay in?"

"Pure gold."

 _Dutch was more than willing to take gold, especially as I was willing to pay it up front, and in the form of something that could easily be disguised as a structural component of the ship. Letting people know you were carrying solid gold, especially several hundred thousand dollars worth, was_ very _unwise in the circles the Black Lagoon Company worked. I had little doubt that some of their associates, like Hotel Moscow, would be smart enough to deal with them honestly regardless, but there were too many low-lifes in Roanapur with no discipline for that to make much difference,_ if _them taking regular payment in gold became commonly known._

 _I could have paid them a hell of a lot more, of course. I could have literally sunken their ship with gold; Atomic Restructuring_ means _Atomic Restructuring. I made the gold I gave them out of seawater. I was careful to temper my instinctive urge to abuse the ability to excess though; Dutch had wanted two hundred grand, I was giving him three. Fifty percent over was plenty to ensure the crew was happy to work with me; too much more and they'd just start to get suspicious. Or maybe realizing I was pretty much magicking up gold from nowhere._

 _Our transportation secured, all that remained was either sneaking out, or convincing the Americans and Malaysians to let us slip out. Given the reality of global politics, and that we were concerned almost exclusively with American and Japanese citizens, convincing the former would also function as convincing the latter, and sneaking out would have unpleasant consequences down the road. Which meant I needed to arrange a meeting with a Flag Officer._

 _Not the easiest thing to do, but not the hardest I'd ever attempted either._

"...You want to speak with Admiral Williams," The Lieutenant-Commander said flatly, "The Admiral is _sleeping_ right now, why should I wake him up to speak with a civilian who has no credentials?"

Jaeger responded by pulling his legs up, and taking a seat on the air.

"If you'd like," He said pleasantly, beginning to slowly rotate sideways, "I could do something a little more drastic to prove my point."

"...That's enough for me to kick it up the chain of command," The Lieutenant-Commander admitted, "We'll see what Captain Shu thinks."

Dawn could be a spectacular thing anywhere in the world, but at sea, it held both a particular potency, and a particular monotony. Any day it was not overcast, one could watch the same sunrise, glorious streaks of color working their way across the sky, until the sun itself peaked up over the horizon, splashing brilliant gold across the surface of the ocean. The counterpoint to this daily display of splendor was just that, it was _daily_. Aside from those who held a particular appreciation for such things, the sight simply became routine, and unless one's duty shift made it convenient, one would rarely bother taking the time to watch it.

Admiral Williams wasn't one of those who made a point of watching sunrises regularly; his wife enjoyed watching sunrises together, so he tried to avoid becoming inured to them while he was on deployment. Married life was easier when common activities were mutually enjoyed, after all. Still, he was on the _Forrestal's_ flight deck, alongside a detachment of marines escorting a shirtless man who appeared to be _floating_.

"I've had too little sleep for mumbo-jumbo and hocus-pocus," The Admiral declared as the 'guest' approached, "You've got one shot to prove to me you aren't just some trickster playing with electromagnets or the like, before I have you thrown either overboard or into the brig."

"Well," The man said with a smile, "If it's electromagnetics you want, perhaps a demonstration of what I did to the sniper's nest during the night?"

"That'd do just fine," Williams said with a snort, jerking his head towards the edge of the deck, "Just make sure you fire out into the open ocean. Wouldn't want a hole in one of my ships."

"Works for me," Jaeger said with a shrug and a smile, before pulling a lump of torn sheet-metal out of his pocket, then opening his palm with the object resting atop it.

Lowering his legs so that he was actually standing on the deck, he sighted over his palm out towards the open ocean, then paused a moment.

"You may want to cover your ears," He said, glancing back at the onlooking military personnel "This is going to be pretty damn loud."

Most of the marines ignored the shirtless man's advice; Williams didn't.

An arc of electricity jumped between his forefinger and thumb; Jaeger spread his fingers out, and the arc split and shifted, until they were collectively lifting the piece of scrap up off of his hand. For perhaps a second and a half, the little shard of metal floated there, while the crackling energy bands thickened and intensified, then Jaeger _pushed_.

The air _shattered,_ a wave of force washing across the dect that felt like a sharp slap to the face to Williams. When the Admiral had been but a junior Lieutenant, many years ago, he'd been aboard ship when an _Iowa_ -class Battleship's main batteries had fired, and the experience was uncomfortably familiar to him. He didn't _hear_ the sound of Jaeger's psychic 'weapon,' mostly because he was too busy _feeling_ and _seeing_ it, leaving the sound lost somewhere in sensory overload.

What Williams saw was almost as impressive as what he felt, a white-hot lance of energy generated purely by friction as the atmosphere bled off the scrap metal's atrocious speed; the shot had enough velocity that it didn't visibly curve. Even adapted to the light of dawn, the intensity of light hurt Williams eyes, and left an after-image across the middle of his retina.

The marines, standing closer to Jaeger, fared worse than the admiral; two of them were knocked off their feet by the shockwave, and several almost opened fire. One marine _did_ open fire, sending two bursts of 5.56 millimeter rounds into Jaeger's back; the shapeshifter twisted in place, and a previously-invisible screen of energy flared into view as it protected him. The first burst was completely deflected, the second wasn't, the three rounds grazing across his lower back, narrowly missing his spine.

Turning his evasive twist into a complete spin, Jaeger seized the Marine's M16, and crushed the barrel with his bare hand.

" _Don't_ do that," Jaeger growled, though only the Admiral could hear him, his ears having been at least partially protected from the sonic boom that had washed over them seconds earlier.

"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" Williams roared, glaring at the deafened man, then storming over and seizing the mutilated weapon still being held between the marine and the Psychic when no response was forthcoming.

The Admiral was able to wrench the M16 free with no trouble, the Marine recognizing the flag officer as soon as he touched the weapon, and Jaeger offering no real resistance. Jaeger stepped back warily, until he was able to bring the entire Marine detachment into his field of view, while Williams used simple gestures to order the disarmed Marine off the flight deck.

Long, tense seconds passed while the Admiral waited for his hearing to finish recovering; he waved off two separate groups of crewers that had showed up on deck as rapid-response teams before he felt sufficiently recovered to speak with Jaeger.

"I saw what that thing did to the offices at the port," Williams said, "What's the effective range on it?"

"The range is limited by the power of the Psychic using the technique," Jaeger replied, "And the durability of the projectile used. Theoretically, there is no limit, practically, someone substantially more powerful than me, or specialized in manipulating Electromagnetism, could get a shot out to a half-mile range, with enough punch to put a hole through just about anything. Maybe an _Iowa_ -class has enough armor, but I doubt much of anything else would."

"You've got my attention," Williams said evenly, "Now why did you want it?"

"Two reasons," Jaeger said, turning to face the Admiral fully and raising a pair of fingers as he did so, "First, to make you aware of the kind of threat you're dealing with. Wizards, Psychics, Martial Artists who use Ki to a level where they _can_ slice concrete pillars in half, sometimes with their bare hands, all of that is something you need to be wary of. The bad news is, an apparently unarmed man may actually be carrying the firepower of a sixteen-inch gun in his brain, soul, life force, whatever. The good news is, as these little scratches on my back prove," Jaeger gestured with a thumb towards the three visibly-healing grazes on his back, "Conventional weapons _can_ hurt those with supernatural abilities.

"Two," Jaeger said after taking a breath, "I need you to get myself and a couple dozen others released ASAP, so we can get moving before our assailants attack again."

"You know of somewhere more secure than here," Williams asked, "Having an entire carrier battlegroup watching your back?"

"Secure for us?" Jaeger said with a shrug, "It's hard to call it one way or another. Secure for you? Definitely. I've no doubt you could blow the hell out of anything threatening us, but it's assymetrical warfare. Unless you've got a Seal team on board, anything you throw at the sort of hostiles we're dealing with will be at a huge disadvantage."

"How about a sub at bottom depth?" Williams asked, "Damn hard to attack down there."

"Yeah," Jaeger said with a sigh, "Unless you can teleport in."

"Teleportation too?" Williams asked with a raised eyebrow.

Jaeger disappeared from where he stood, reappearing five feet further back; he didn't bother with a verbal response after that.

"Son," Williams said, sounding more than a little disgruntled, "All of this is going to play merry hell with strategic thinking."

"I know," Jaeger replied, almost embarassed by what he was dropping on the flag officer, "There _are_ counters to pretty much everything in the magician's bag of tricks, the problem is, most of them will require something else from that same bag of tricks in turn."

"That's not a lot of intel to work on," Williams frowned, "I'm going to need, and the Joint Chiefs are going to _demand_ a lot more than what you've told us so far."

"They might already know," Jaeger said with a shrug, "The President should, at the least. I haven't been in con-"

Jaeger broke off, sighing, raising a hand to rub his temples for a moment before continuing.

"There's too much to go over in detail," He said, "If you want a detailed brief on what I do know, send a man with me, and I'll brief him with what I can while we're on the move."

"You're assuming I'll get you released," Williams observed, his tone inferring neither agreement or disagreement.

"I'm moving Beryl and the girls whether you want me to or not," Jaeger said simply, "The only way I won't is if _they_ tell me they don't want to be moved. I'm simply trying to make friends as I leave, rather than piss people off."

Williams stared at Jaeger for nearly a full minute, carefully thinking over the situation before him, before speaking again.

"Just how powerful are you?" He finally asked.

"Directly?" Jaeger said quietly, "That railgun trick is my most powerful offensive tool. Indirectly? I can probably fabricate a working nuclear weapon from dirt in about five minutes. With practice, I could reduce that. And let me warn you, I am _not_ the only one with the raw ability to do such, though I may be one of very few with the combined knowledge and ability. I could also turn this aircraft carrier into marshmellows, but that'd just be silly now, wouldn't it?"

"You just told me you're a nuclear delivery package," Williams said flatly, "And you expect me to just let you disappear somewhere?"

"Like I said, admiral," Jaeger replied calmly, "You're welcome to send a man with me, and if you've got a Seal team or the like, we could actually be secure around here. As it is, I can offer to make Okinawa my destination, and again, you can send a man to accompany me if you'd like. If I had the range, I'd just ask for a secure site to be set up, and teleport us all there, but for assorted reasons, that's not really possible just now."

"No anti-teleport defense in your own bag of tricks?" Williams asked.

"Not yet," Jaeger said, shaking his head, "But we should soon. It's part of why we need to be mobile before another strike can be mounted."

"How long do we have?" Williams asked.

"It's been about five hours since the last attack," Jaeger said, "I'm estimating eight to twelve minimum turnaround before they can get a new force together, or at least one with the intel they've gathered on how we already beat them off."

"Alright son," Williams said slowly, coming to a reluctant decision, "I'll let you out of here, but I _will_ be sending a man with you, and I _will_ be expecting you to show up at Okinawa. How soon will you be leaving?"

"Minutes," Jaeger said, "Have your man either meet me here, or have someone here to tell me where to find him, in ten minutes, and we'll be moving."

Then Jaeger disappeared.

"Lyn," Jaeger said, speaking the instant he appeared where she was camped out with the girls and Saeko, "We're moving. Get the girls ready for a teleport, and have them bring blankets and pillows."

Lyn looked Jaeger in the eye for a moment, reading his mood and intent, before nodding; Jager disappeared again.

"Miss Sakurada," Jaeger called once he was certain the Superintendant-General of the TMPD was awake, "I'm planning on moving the girls and Beryl to a safer location, and quickly, in order to try to avoid further attack. Do you wish to come with?"

Natsuna looked up at Jaeger with bloodshot eyes, tear-tracks still visible on her face.

"How many of my men can we bring with?"

"I've made provision for all of them," Jaeger said "There are roughly two dozen fit for travel?"

"And the injured?" Natsuna demanded, "The bodies of the dead? I can't just leave them here, their families deserve better than that."

Jaeger walked over to the bedside table in the small cabin Natsuna had been resting (crying) in, and picked up a plastic plate with the remains of a small meal on it. With a moment's concentration, he turned the piece of tableware to gold; it shrank considerably as its mass was condensed, but that still left several ounces of pure gold.

"I can leave payment with the local law enforcement to ensure that the bodies are cared for, and I'm sure the Americans would be happy to take care of your wounded men. We can meet up with them back in Japan."

"We'll come then," Natsuna said, pulling a handkerchief out of a pocket to wipe at her face, "There's no way I'm going to let these thugs keep me from protecting my people."

"Glad to hear it," Jaeger said, giving Natsuna a short, respectful bow, before disappearing.

"You ready to go?"

"Dammit!" Dutch shouted, almost hurling himself out of the 'captain's' chair on the _Black Lagoon_ , shotgun halfway leveled at Jaeger before he realized who had spoken, "What you doing, appearing out of thin air?"

"Pretty much," Jaeger said with a small smile, teleporting halfway across the small 'wheelhouse' of the ship, "You're just lucky I can't do this over properly long distances yet, or I never would have needed to hire you in the first place."

"I don't want you moving up behind me like that," Dutch said as he recovered his equilibrium, "It's dangerous on a ship with Revy and me."

"Fair point," Jaeger said with a shrug, "Can we set a point below deck where I can teleport in? Because that's how I plan to move the passengers; don't want anyone seeing us board, the whole point of this is to cut as low a profile as possible."

"Go find Rock," Dutch said, "He'll show you the cabin we keep mostly empty for passengers. When do you want to leave?"

"Ten minutes," Jaeger said, "And as a heads-up, Admiral Williams insisted I bring one of his men with, to keep an eye on things."

"You've already got us carrying cops," Dutch said with a shrug, "Navy man makes no difference."

"Good," Jaeger said with a nod as he turned to head out on deck, "I'll go find Rock then."

By the time the sun had risen enough to no longer touch the horizon, the _Black Lagoon_ was leaving port. Nobody on shore, or even on the other ships in harbor, had seen five Japanese girls, an assortment of young women, several vacationing TMPD officers, and one US Navy Lieutenant board the vessel. The only outwardly visible sign that it was carrying passengers or cargo of any sort whatsoever, was that it sat slightly lower in the water, though scarecely low enough to be visible to the unaided human eye.

Amongst the Malaysians and Americans involved in the aftermath of the incident, only Admiral Williams and a handful of Marines knew Jaeger's intended destination, and due to both dealing with a disciplinary issue related to lack of fire discipline and deliberate maneuvering on the Admiral's part, none of them even knew that the _Black Lagoon_ had left port.

When Striker Teams Beta and Gamma arrived in Kota Kinabalu three hours after dawn, their targets were long since gone. All timely forms of scrying and divination revealed only a moving torpedo boat on the open ocean, and lacked relevant landmarks with which to derive an appropriate destination for teleportation.

Several more 'modern' magi who had been arguing for funding coordinate-based divination techniques made quite a ruckus over it.

((()))


	5. Chapter 5

AN: There's a scene in her that's pretty philosophy-heavy between Jaeger and Natsuna. It's scene-broken up where it goes in deeper than some people care for.

"You have got to be shitting me."

Rock looked up from the paperback he'd been reading, to see the _talking cat_ that the Black Lagoon was ferrying stare at him with a mixture of bewilderment and disgust. He felt a moment of bewilderment himself, at how emotive a cat's face could apparently be, before irritation at the disgust kicked in.

"Can I help you with something, client-san?" Rock asked dryly.

"Sorry," Jaeger said, shaking his head for a moment, his expression smoothing out as he did so, "I just discovered something that I _really_ did not expect."

"That being?" Rock asked, leaning back in his seat.

"You have The Gift," Jaeger replied simply, "You can learn magic, if you wish."

Rock's chair fell over backward, spilling him onto the deck as the young man gibbered slightly in shock, before bolting to his feet.

"I am _not_ a magical girl!" He shouted, jabbing a finger at Jaeger as he spoke, just as the hatch behind the cat opened.

"...Did I come at a bad time?" Natsuna asked as she tried to suppress a smile at the scene in front of her.

"I'm not sure," Jaeger said, a hint of confusion showing in his voice, "For some reason Rock-kun here seems to think I'm telling him he's a magical girl."

"You're a talking cat," Rock counted off, raising fingers sequentially as he did so, "You can shapeshift. You just told me I can do magic, and maybe most indicatively, you're in a dire situation where you need help on some magical quest."

"You have to admit," Natsuna said with a smirk, "This _does_ sound like the setup for a Maho Shoujo series."

"Ami-chan and the others are the magical girls," Jaeger said with a scowl, "Rock here just has The Gift. About one in twenty thousand people do, whether he wants to actually learn how to use it is up to him."

Silence reigned in the cabin for a few moments, neither human sure what to say in response to Jaeger's words, Jaeger deliberately surpressing his desire to go into 'exposition' mode.

"Rock-san," Natsuna eventually said, "Could you give Jaeger and I some privacy?"

Happy for an opportunity to escape and think, Rock nodded quickly, before slipping out of the small cabin.

"What's on your mind, Natsuna?" Jaeger asked, turning to study the police woman curiously.

"Many things," Natsuna replied with a tired smile, while pulling Rock's fallen chair upright, and seating herself in it, "Mostly regarding the fallout from yesterday. What of yourself?"

"Much the same," Jaeger said with a sigh, "Lynette is attempting to discern a means of warding against scrying and teleportation, but neither form of magic is particularly compatible with the nature magics she wields. My own opotions are even more limited; I know of a spell, though I don't know how to cast it myself, that can protect at least an individual against scrying, but I wouldn't be able to use it on _enough_ people."

"Typical man," Natsuna said, her tired smile returning, "Focused on problem-solving. Have you thought about the emotional fallout of the two attacks?"

"Yes," Jaeger said tiredly, flopping down onto his side as he spoke, "All of this has been one hell of a trauma for the girls, and had some unpleasant effect on the rest of us as well."

"How about yourself?" Natsuna asked quietly, "I can't imagine that dealing with the wounds you did was easy, even if you've _physically_ recovered from them so quickly."

"Most of the sensory organs are in the head," Jaeger said flatly, "Try burying your head in burning sand, and you'll have a rough idea of what it felt like."

"Ouch," Natsuna said with a wince, "How do you deal with that kind of trauma?"

"The same way as with any other trauma," Jaeger said with a shrug, twisting around so he was looking away from Natsuna while he spoke, "I figure out what went wrong, try to keep it all from happening again."

"'Happening again,'" Natsuna said quietly, "Jaeger, they _shot_ you. In the _head_. Your head _exploded_ fom the sheer force of impact."

"Natsuna," Jaeger replied, his voice dropping to a level where it was barely audible, "Before the last week, I was trapped in the form of a _cat_ for _months._ I couldn't _speak._ I had no _hands_. I was almost _dead_ when Ami found me in Tokyo, and for weeks, I was bound up in casts and barely able to _move._ Being short a head for a few minutes is _nothing,_ especially since my metaphysical abilities are no longer crippled either."

"...How long has it been since you had any real peace?" Natsuna asked after a taking a moment to protest the cat's words, "And why are you still in that shape, if it's so hard, and you don't have to be?"

"Because I _don't have to be_ ," Jaeger said simply, "It's not a bad form, in and of itself. It's strong, fast, agile, and I've learned to do a great deal of manipulation with the tail. Now that I can shape my throat for speech, it's decent. Besides, I was a Werewolf, much like Cait, before I was cursed, so I'm not altogether unused to quadrupedal forms."

Natsuna waited for a moment to see if Jaeger would continue, before pressing her first point again.

"And the last time you had peace?" She asked.

"Have you ever been a cat, sat in someone's lap, and fallen asleep while they petted you?" Jaeger asked, cocking one of his highly-mobile ears at her as he did so.

"I can't say I have," Natsuna said with a faint smile, "But again, that's not a direct answer."

"You're pressing me," Jaeger replied quietly, "To see if I'm repressing trauma to an unhealthy degree."

"Yes," Natsuna nodded, "I've seen a number of police officers snap under strain they refused to face. It's common to all men, and some women, but it hits the hardest those who see and experience truly horrible things."

"It's not me you need to worry about," Jaeger said with a sigh, "Though the concern is appreciated. Are you familiar with the title Jehovah Rapha?"

"I can't say I am," Natsuna said with a shake of her head, "Though 'Jehovah' makes me think of Jews for some reason."

"Jehovah is one of the primary titles of God," Jaeger said, "There are a number of addendums, Jehovah Rapha in specific, is the title meaning 'God Who Heals.'"

"So you find solace in your religion?" Natsuna asked, clearly surprised, "And you're _Jewish?_ "

"No," Jaeger said with a dispirited sigh, "I'm Christian, not Jewish, and saying I 'find solace in my religion' would be a bit like saying 'people eat food.' It's technically accurate, but it doesn't remotely contain the full meaning of just what is going on. Or what _isn't_ going on."

"That's..." Natsuna said slowly, "Not terribly clear."

"Well," Jaeger said quietly, "That's generally about as clear as it gets without a four-hour foray into religious debate."

"How long is it supposed to take to get to Okinawa?" Natsuna asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Yes," Jaeger said, "We _do_ have time during this trip. Are you sure you want to spend it this way?"

"Yes," Natsuna said decisively, "I've already spent time with my men today, and have little better to do."

((()))

"Well then," Jaeger said, rolling to his feet, and adopting an almost formal seated posture; formal for a cat at least, "Let's start with the basics of philosophy. Do you believe your senses convey to you reliable information about the world?"

Natsuna's mouth hung open for a moment, her face contorting in confusion at the abrupt change in subject matter.

"...Yes?" She said eventually, "I assume this is going somewhere relevant to religious debate?"

"Quite," Jaeger said with a sharp nod, "Philosophy and Theology are inextricably interlinked subjects. The most fundamental assumptions of one must be coherent with the other, for at the most fundamental level, they are practically the same thing."

"I'm not sure if I see that," Natsuna said, "But I'm sure you'll be happy to illustrate it for me."

"Quite," Jager again said with a nod, "It's very simple. Philosophy is the fundamental study of knowledge, reality, and existence. It precedes what is commonly known as 'science' in the modern day, as in order to utilize the scientific method, one must first choose to believe that their senses provide them with is reliable, and thus can be counted on to provide them with accurate feedback regarding scientific studies. Science is, in a way, ultimately pattern recognition. One recognizes patterns, studies them, and attempts to derive the underlying principles which result in the pattern observed. Once those principles are understood, they can then be manipulated into the many forms of modern industry/technology that we enjoy today."

Natsuna sat and _stared_ at the cat for a long, _long_ moment, before she felt prepared to speak.

"Could you shift back to human form?" She requested, "Hearing such a comprehensive bit of philosphy from someone I'd thought a professional soldier is jarring enough, hearing it from a _cat_ is a bit much just now."

Jaeger shrugged slowly, his forequarters shifting to proper shoulders as he did so; by the time the gesture was complete, he was human again.

"So you led with the question about trusting senses," Natsuna began once she'd taken a moment to study Jaeger's (shirtless) human form, "Because it's a cornerstone to your philosophy?"

"It's a cornerstone to the philosophy of _anyone_ who isn't insane," Jaeger said, "There's obviously some people who have issues with chemical balance in their brain, and certain drugs, taken medically or recreationally, which can cause hallucinations involving one or all of the senses, but at base, if you don't trust your senses to be reliable except for specific unusual circumstances, you end up in the 'am I a man dreaming he is a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he is a man?' bullshit."

"Or in your case," Natsuna said with a smirk, "A man turned into a cat very effectively pretending to be a man again?"

Jaeger levelled a flat glare at her, and Natsuna had the decency to blush slightly in embarassment.

"Fine," She said with a soft huff, "More seriously, yes, I do believe my senses provide generally accurate information about the world around me."

"Good," Jaeger said, nodding again, before adopting a scowl of distaste as he asked his next question, "Next up, do you believe in Absolutes?"

"Isn't that a kind of redundant question?" Natsuna said curiously, "If you say no, you've stated an absolute that you believe in, and thus your statement is self-defeating."

"Oh, it is," Jaeger's scowl deepened, "But a _lot_ of people think they believe that anyways. As you said, it's self-defeating, and it ultimately is just an excuse for denying something even if they don't have any coherent reason to disbelieve it, or believing something even though they have no coherent reason to do so. It makes most debate pointless, as anyone professing not to believe in absolutes, has at least to some degree, a worldview which at an even more fundamental level, has 'I will believe whatever supports my desires best, regardless of the evidence.'"

"That's quite an incendiary statement," Natsuna said quietly.

"Truth often is," Jaeger said, tension filling his voice, "Which is a large part of why it tends to be so unpopular, particularly in affluent nations."

"And why politicians are such accomplished liars most of the time," Natsuna muttered quietly; it only took a glance at Jaeger's somewhat grim face to realize she hadn't been quite quiet enough to keep him from hearing her anyways.

"These two basic premises taken," Jaeger continued after a moment, "The next question is just as simple; what do you want more than anything else in this world?"

"For Japan to be a nation ruled justly," Natsuna immediately replied, "With as little corruption as possible."

"A fairly admirable goal," Jaeger said with a nod, "But there are several further presuppositions it is based off of. Firstly, it is more or less directly stating that Japan does not _currently_ exist as a nation ruled by just laws, wherein corruption is at a minimum."

Natsuna nodded in response, but waited for Jaeger to continue speaking.

"Second, it presumes such a thing can be changed. Finally, and most essential to the entire situation, it assumes the existence of _moral law_ , which transcends a nation's laws. Upon what basis do you discern moral law?"

"...What?" Natsuna half-said, half-asked, "The _basis_ for moral law? Isn't that self-evident?"

"Have you studied history?" Jaeger asked.

"Of course," Natsuna said with a small frown, "I have a Bachelor's _and_ a Masters in Law. History, and history of legal codes, was part of the course of study."

"Then you should know," Jaeger said, "That the most well-known atrocities of the twentieth century were perpetrated by those who rejected the idea of a transcendant moral law, and that in earlier periods of history, the most famous atrocities were generally committed by those who claimed they held special authority to interpret or redefine the commonly understood moral codes of the day."

"While that's a very general way to describe a great deal of history," Natsuna said slowly, "I don't think it's entirely inaccurate."

"So, let's take the the iconic villain of the twentieth century," Jaeger said, "Adolf Hitler. Making use of his talent and skill as a charismatic and passionate orator, he appealed to the wounded pride and economy of the German people, and basically formed an immense cult of personality. Within that cult of personality, he _was_ the moral law. What Adolf Hitler said _went_. He dissolved the legal system, took total control of all aspects of the government, and built up the Gestapo and SS as primary enforcement arms of his will. Percentages and holdouts can be argued, but the bottom line was that through hero-worship or fear, the German people submitted to him, and like many megalomaniacs, the longer he held power, the crazier he became."

"The most well-known example being 'The Final Solution,'" Natsuna said distastefully, "The largest-scale and most well-known act of genocide in all history."

"Yes," Jaeger said with a nod, "And an intrinsic part of why he did this, and why his minions were willing to carry out his will, is that they rejected any source of moral authority higher than Adolf Hitler."

Jaeger paused for a moment, sighing sadly before continuing.

"In essence, within Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler _was god,"_ Jaeger said quietly, "And once he had taken up that role for himself, the full depth of evil within his heart slowly became more and more obvious."

Natsuna wasn't sure what to say in response to that; silence passed for nearly a full minute while Jaeger looked down at the deck, caught up in either memory or lost in though, Natsuna wasn't sure which.

"In this day and age," Jaeger eventually continued, his voice soft, "Like many that have come before it, people are often born into a lifestyle of prosperity. Until the end of the Cold War, there was, at the least, a great enemy, an existential threat, that forced a kind of reality check on most people. I'm somewhere in my mid-twenties now, I've lost too much time to know for sure exactly how old I am, but in my original world, I was born in eighty-six. I am among the oldest who have no meaningful memory of what the Cold War was like, so even if I make a point of studying my history, I simply cannot have the same visceral understanding of it that someone such as yourself can."

"Living with MAD was not fun for those of us who understood what it really meant," Natsuna admitted with a nod.

"The USSR was perhaps one of the best examples of how horrible tyranny is throughout all of history," Jaeger said with a nod, "Largely shaped by the man most influential in forming it, Joseph Stalin. Did you know that Stalin, before he decided to go into politics as he did, was at seminary, studying to be a minister?"

Natsuna shook her head, surprise clear in her eyes.

"I cannot say for certain that all the details remain the same between this world and my own," Jaeger continued quietly, "Though from what I have been able to check, they largely are. If the parallels hold true, however, the existence and nature of the USSR could be seen directly as the artifice of Stalin's attempt to become a god."

"I think I understand what you mean," Natsuna said thoughtfully, "During his time ruling the nation, at least after his early purges of those who opposed him, his word was law. If he said a thing was to be done, it was done. If he ordered someone's death, they were killed."

"Exactly," Jaeger said with a nod, "The two most dangerous kinds of killers, are those who recognize no moral law other than that which they write themselves, for their own benefit, and those who adhere to a moral law which mandates they kill. It's only beginning to show worldwide at this point, but the radical fringes of Islam include many men who are dangerous in exactly this way."

"I'd have to look into it myself to substantiate some historical points you've referred to," Natsuna said with a nod, "But by and large, I'm inclined to agree with your assessment. For the sake of this discussion, let's assume I do."

"Very well then," Jaeger said, his voice rising back to a more normal conversational range, "I both take solace, and do not, from my 'religion' for many reasons, but most salient in the here and now is this: I have a rational framework, an understanding of human psychology combined with social psycholgy, and a moral code derived from my Christian worldview, all of which allow me to understand exactly what is wrong with this world, why it's so screwed up. There is the advantage of understanding the problem, and the disadvantage of being mostly helpless to do anything about it."

" _Mostly helpless?_ " Natsuna said, not even bothering to mask the disbelief in her voice, "You _grew back your head_ today. You've-"

Natsuna broke off from conversation, groaning and holding her head in both hands as a wave of pain washed over it, along with something else much more difficult to deal with; _memories._ Jaeger leapt to his feet, and crossed the short distance between them, gently raising her head so he could look into her eyes, check her pulse, rest the back of his hand against her forehead to see if she had a fever, and generally look for signs of a stroke or similar.

"'m fine," Natsune muttered, making a half-hearted effort at pushing the shapeshifter away with one hand, while the other began to massage her temples, "Spell broke."

"What spell?" Jaeger asked, some worry in his voice.

"Usagi's spell," Natsuna said, leaning back in her chair with a sigh, and levelling a tired gaze at Jaeger, "I remember everything now. How did Betyl turn into a member of the Imperial family?"

"I can only offer best-guesses to most of the effects of her spell," Jaeger said, leaning back and releasing Natsuna with a sight, "It was basically an Epic Wish, meaning she expressed a basic desire, and the artifact driving the spell interpreted it as best it could. Do you remember the wording of the wish?"

"Something about everything being normal again?" Natsuna half-asked.

"Yes," Jaeger said, "She was probably having something of a mental break-down, and rather unsurprisingly, saw all the effects of magic on her life as being bad. So, she tried to wish it all into 'normality,' and Beryl, having identified as a Queen, was lumped into the closest 'normal' thing in Usagi's mind."

"The Imperial family," Natsuna said with a nod, "I suppose that explains how dimension-hoppers like your two lady friends-" Jaeger winced at Natsuna's choice of words "-Have legal documentation here. Why weren't your or their memories affected?"

"Like I said," Jaeger said with a shrug, "It's the best guess I've been able to come up with. If it had just been Caitlyn here, I'd think she might have gotten forgeries made, but Lynette's a bit too straight-laced to go for something like that unless the need was very dire. As to the memories, mine _were_. When I first woke up, I had no memories more recent than from when I was in my home dimension, and I was wondering why the hell I was a cat. I didn't even remember that I could do magic, but it didn't take me terribly long to break through the memory block."

"And the Lyn's?" Natsuna asked.

"Their minds are magically protected," Jaeger said with a shrug, "I guess the protections were strong enough to ward against Usagi's spell. They're both pretty hard-headed too; I originally didn't want either of them following after me in the sort of mess I tend to get caught up in."

"That didn't seem to work too well," Natsuna said with a small smile.

"You have _no_ idea," Jaeger muttered.

((()))

 _President's Office, Kinshasa, Zaire._

"How did you get in here?" President Mobutu Sese Seko demanded in shock.

Seated at his desk, idly paging through several (doubtless classified) documents that had been kept in one of the Mahogany fixture's (locked) drawers, was a tall, long-haired man wearing some odd form of gray uniform.

With a _cape_.

 _I wonder if I'd look that good in a cape?_ Mobutu idly wondered as his brain tried to restart properly.

"I let myself in," The man said with a dismissive wave, "I saw no reason to trouble the staff just yet."

" _Trouble the staff?_ " Mobutu half-snarled, before turning to shout out the door he had just walked through to call for a guard.

Unfortunately, the door was closed. Not only was it closed, but an indistinguishable replica of the man at the President's desk was standing watch over it as well.

"You know," The seated man said, "You have quite the reputation for corruption throughout the world. It's to the point where they had to coin a term for your government in particular; they call it a 'kleptocracy.'"

"I know what they call it," Mobutu said stiffly, carefully backing to the side, his hand creeping towards the revolver concealed in a shoulder-holster at his side, "What business of it is yours?"

"Quite simple," the man said with a faint smile, finally looking up to meet Mobutu's gaze, "I'm in need of a kingdom, so I do believe I'll be taking yours, since you don't seem to know what to do with it."

Mobutu had no words for such a bold statement; instead he drew the revolver and fired. Not being a gunman of any particular skill, the first shot missed, but as the man simply stood there and watched him with a faint smile, he had plenty of time to take a second, third, then fourth, fifth, and sixth shot. The last two ricocheted off of an invisible barrier in front of the intruder's face.

"I am Nephrite," The man said, standing as he spoke, "One of the four Heavenly Generals of the Earth Kingdom. I was particularly heavenly compared to my peers, given my affinity is towards the sky. Tell me, mister Mobutu, do you know what the penalty for grand theft, wilful miscarriage of justice, and conspiracy to murder are, under the laws you signed early on during your rule?"

Mobutu turned to flee, but the duplicate of Nephrite still stood between him and the exit to his office; the 'secret' exit lay too close to his desk for him to risk while dealing with... he didn't even know what he was dealing with.

"The penalty is _death_ , Mr. Mobutu," Nephrite said, waving his hand disdainfully as he unleashed... _something_ at the corrupt present.

Mobutu was still trying to figure out what the air-distortion was when it cut him in half.

((()))

"How do you deal with it?" Makoto asked.

Caitlyn turned from where she'd been standing on the prow of the ship of the ship, staring out over the ocean, and stared quietly at Makoto for several long seconds before replying.

"The way I was introduced to violence and then bloodshed," Caitlyn said, speaking loudly so she could be heard over the engines and the spray thrown up by the prow cutting through the water, "Was very, _very_ different from how you were. Are you sure you want to know?"

Makoto nodded, a mixture of grief and determination on her face.

"I'm from Chicago, originally," Caitlyn said, gesturing for the younger girl to move closer, and lowering her voice as Makoto did so, "Not a very safe city, but my family mostly did alright. We paid our 'protection' money, and we were left alone, if a bit poorer, and that was pretty much it. When I was near the end of High School though, there was a shake up in the gangs in the city, and a new gang took control of the territory my father's shop was in. A gang that wanted _more_ money, more than my father could afford to pay. Some of them decided I'd be a good 'collateral,' but Boss, you call him Jaeger, intervened and killed the men trying to kidnap me.

"I didn't find out until later," Caitlyn said, deflating slightly as she spoke, "But Jaeger had only come across what was going on in my father's shop, because he was actually _hunting_ the gangs of the city. After he saved me, he moved on to other targets, and he _wasn't_ around when they came for me again. I was raped."

Makoto's eyes went wide, and she tried to cover a gasp with a hand over her mouth.

"Jaeger found out they'd taken me," Caitlyn continued flatly, "And he and a friend tore the rest of the gang apart, killed the leader, half-destroyed his mansion, and brought me to Lyn, since my father had been killed when they took me. After crying my eyes out for a few days, I decided I was going to be too strong for something like that ever to happen again, which is why I infected myself with Lycanthropy, I mean became a werewolf, and learned how to fight. Jaeger has helped a lot in some ways, but he's been telling me the whole time that I can't let that be my dominating motivation. Lynette mostly agrees."

"That's _horrible_ ," Makoto said softly, heartfelt emotion in her eyes and voice, and for a long, long moment, Caitlyn envied the girl's innocence, even after what she had seen happen.

"Yeah," Caitlyn said quietly, reaching out and laying a hand on the other girl's shoulder, "It was. There are a lot of horrible people out in the world, and something most people in modern, 'civilized' nations just don't have to deal with. You should talk to Jaeger about it some time, he'll be happy to explain it to you in lots of detail. If you want advice on how to deal with all this shit, you should talk to Lynette, she's got a gentler heart. You don't want to end up like me."

"Why not?" Makoto asked hesitantly.

"Because I'm angry all the time," Caitlyn said, looking away from Makoto, "And Lynette and Jaeger have been telling me it's not healthy for long enough that I'm starting to believe them. Even if Jaeger can be a bit of a hypocrite about it."

"Uh," Makoto said, fidgeting slightly at Caitlyn's somewhat critical words.

"He's angry too," Caitlyn said, mistaking the source of Makoto's discomfort, "He just gets angry for different reasons, mostly because people don't understand things he thinks are very important."

"Gates-san," Makoto said awkwardly, "Why are you telling me this?"

Caitlyn was quiet for a long moment before replying.

"I suppose I don't really need to weigh you down with this," She eventually said, before stepping away from the prow, "Come on, let's go find Lynette."

 _Sovereign National Conference Chamber, Shikasa, Zaire._

"Good evening, gentlemen," Nephrite called as he entered the large, well-appointed room, "I have called you here today to inform you that I am claiming ownership of this nation through Right of Conquest. The staff should be cleaning up ex-president Mobutu's corpse presently."

The assorted assorted representatives of the peoples of Congo, just over eighteen hundred out of more than two thousand total being present, stared at the man of vaguely mediterranean ethnicity, stunned by his brazen statement.

"I understand that this change comes to you rather abruptly," Nephrite continued, "However, should any of you wish to contest the change in power, I am open to dueling any day, at any time from sunrise to sunset, so long as the time and place is appropriately set at least one day prior. Do any of you wish to arrange for such a meeting?"

The stunned silence continued for several seconds, and Nephrite smiled, before bulling onward.

"In that case," The former Dark General declared, "I suggest we get down to business. I hereby declare the national government of Zaire dissolved. I shall be replacing it with a proper Monarchy presently, and from those present in this chamber I hope to pick the first fifty Counts and Countesses to rule the land in my name, as well as one Duke who shall have charge over the capital province. Who wishes to put forward their name and credentials first?"

"This is absurd!" One of the representatives, a tall man in late middle age, burst out, "Guards! Remove this lunatic at once!"

The pair of (largely ceremonial) guards at the primary entrance to the conference chambers stepped into the doorway, confusion vaguely visible on their faces, quickly overtaken by pain, and then unconsciousness, as Nephrite waved a hand, unleashing a modest burst of electricity upon them.

"We will begin dealing with the military tomorrow," The Heavenly General declared, "Though I will note, service in the military, prior or immediately forthcoming, shall be required of anyone being added to the peerage. All must serve, the Nobility more so than the common man, even if their service is primarily in leadership. Befitting said leadership role, they will of course serve as officers. Now, who wishes to put forth their name first?"

Chaos broke out within the chambers; Nephrite watched and smiled.

((()))

 _Black Lagoon, Southwest Pacific._

"So do you want to learn?" Jaeger asked, this time while in his human form.

"How to be a magical girl?" Rock asked, though there was amusement, rather than panic, in his voice this time.

"Do the villains in Mahou Shoujo series use sniper rifles, shotguns, and body armor?" Jaeger asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Not as far as I'm aware," Rock replied with a shrug, "What exactly are we looking at here?"

"Your gift is for the more scholarly form of magic," Jaeger said, shoulders twitching slightly in a manner that looked more appropriate for a cat than a human, "From what I know of you, that fits your talents and character reasonably well. It's the most flexible, but but most difficult to master branch; would you like a modest demonstration?"

"It would be appreciated," Rock said with a nod.

"Right then," Jaeger said, taking a moment to concentrate, before snapping his fingers and conjuring a small knife, "This is a minor mana construct," He flipped it over in his hand, offering the hilt to Rock, who gingerly took it, "It's fully capable of anything a real knife with no exceptional qualities is, but has one significant drawback."

Jaeger snapped his fingers again, and the small blade dissolved into motes of light, which swiftly faded away, leaving Rock's hand empty.

"The next demonstration I can give is a bit more invasive," Jaeger said, "You sure you want to experience it?"

"...I'd prefer to know what I'm potentially dealing with," Rock said after a moment's thought.

Jaeger shrugged, then snapped his fingers again, and Rock's eyes widened as he found himself involuntarily standing up, dancing a quick jig, then sitting down again, before he regained control of his body.

"Unpleasant, isn't it?" Jaeger said quietly as Rock tried to fend off a building panic attack.

"What the _hell?_ " Rock hissed as he swiftly checked that his assorted muscles were responding to _his_ commands, not someone else's.

"That spell," Jaeger said slow, "Is actually from one of the most benevolent schools of magic there is. Your innate magic resistance doesn't appear to be particularly high, so it looks like currently, your only real defense against supernatural threats is either hitting before they act, or simply not drawing their attention."

"Can any magician do that shit?" Rock asked, breathing somewhat hard as he stared warily at Jaeger.

"No," Jaeger shook his head, "I used a spell to take control of your body, and puppet it. Some Wizards or Psychics can take control of your emotions, or your mind itself."

" _Mind control?_ " Rock almost shouted, "What the _hell?_ "

"I tend to look at it this way," Jaeger said with a scowl, "Time and brainwashing can sway all but the strongest willed to just about any point of view, if pursued harshly enough. Magic just cuts the required time down to almost nothing."

"How do I protect against that kind of shit?" Rock asked.

"Two ways," Jaeger said with a shrug, "First, have utterly overwhelming force of will. Magic and Psychic powers both are interlinked to your strength of will; if yours is strong enough, mind control and other esoteric effects simply won't work against you. Second, and both more and less easy, is to learn magic so you can ward yourself and others against such things."

"Then I'll be learning," Rock said, a hint of steel showing in his eyes.

((()))

 _Royal Office, former Presidential Palace, Shikasa, Kingdom of Congo._

"What did you do with the rest of Mobutu's government?" Etienne Tshisekedi, the primary political opponent to Mobutu's thirty-year regime, asked carefully of the man sitting behind what used to be President Mobutu's desk.

"The Commissariats have been sent to a new detention facility I constructed last night," Nephrite said with a wave of his hand, indicating that Tshisekedi should take a seat in front of his desk, "They will be no further trouble for our new government. Now, you are one of very few who has both stood against this nation's former dictator, and yet lives without going into hiding. This is why I was willing to meet you, but why did you wish to speak with me?"

"I want to know what your intentions for the Congo are," Etienne said carefully, "And the nature of your apparent supernatural abilities."

"Ah," Nephrite said, leaning back in his chair with a smile, "It is time for a small history lesson. Long ago, before the time of any surviving written records you are familiar with, in what you could say was a different age altogether, Earth colonized the solar system. Mars and Venus were terraformed, Mercury had arcologies built beneath the surfece, the Gas Giants had orbital and-moon based colonies built. As time passed, war swept across Earth, and the colonies cut ties in an effort to avoid the war, such things being far more hazardous in space, after all. After the war, Earth was united under one rule, a Golden Kingdomruled bythe house of Endymion, who held court in Elysion.

"Initially, King Endymion moved to rejoin the various colonies to Earth, but they had become accustomed to independence, and he was hardly going to force the issue. Even if he had had the appetite for war, the people of Earth did not, and it took some generations to properly recover from the conflict which had swept the planet. During this time, Earth became a Golden Kingdom in truth as well as name; it was not perfect, as no nation run by men ever will be, but we made a very fine try of it. Crime was low in the vast majority of Provinces was low, the arts flourished, and the military was gradually reduced from the immense juggernaut it had been during the war, to something more on the order of two percent of the populace, though a disproportionate number of mages joined."

"Mages?" Tshisekedi interrupted cautiously.

"Yes," Nephrite said with a nod, "The military paid extra to recruit mages, and any reasonably capable of learning healing magics were taught them. Any who wished to be e Healer-" Tshisekedi could _hear_ the capital in that title "Almost all had military service; such is why I myself first joined, to receive training as a healer, though I found other interests during my service. My own experiences aside, while Earth found peace, the colonies found war, a war every bit as ugly as that which had wracked the homeworld prior. And much like Earth, as the war ended, a unified power emerged in the aftermath, one known as the Silver Millenium, a somewhat distorted relection of the Golden Kingdom established by the Endymion line.

"First and foremost amongst the differences, is that the Silver Millenium was Matriarchal. They were ruled by Queen Serenity, who held court upon the Moon, and from each world a Princess, who both ruled their world, and were the avatar of its strength, through means that we never did divine, bound to the Ley Lines of their entire world, and thus capable of channeling immense power beyond anything a mortal had been known to wield before.

"Of course, as the war had swept across the solar system, King Endymion built up the military once more. In spite of all the terraforming that had been carried out upon other worlds, Earth was still unquestionably the most hospitable, and we could not afford to be seen as an easy, tempting target. It was during this time that I, the mere third son of a Count, was able to swiftly climb the ranks within the military, rising high enough to draw the attention of Royalty, and with my sublime skill, I was appointed one of the bodyguards of the young new Prince, firstborn of the Endymion, and thus budding heir to the throne.

"Once the solar wars ended, a draw-down of the military was considered, but when Serenity revealed the Senshi and their immense power, King Endymion wisely chose to retain our military strength as it was, neither reducing it to a 'peace-time' level, nor building it in response to the implied strategic threat. In this way, he neither provoked Serenity, nor presented a weak image to her. You are a statesman of some experience, you understand how this form of maneuvering works, yes?"

"Both the appearance of strength and the willingness to make use of it," Tshisekedi said with a nod, "These things are known to me, perhaps all too well."

"Good," Nephrite said with a regal nod, "A decade of peace ensued, and this was, inarguably, the apex of both Golden Kingdom and Silver Millennium. Trade opened between our kingdoms, colonials and terran citizens vacationed in each other's realms, learning what life was like on the other side of the coin for the first time in generations. Our people even began to intermarry, several of noble families on either side included.

"Two things King Endymion did of particular consequence in this time. First, seeing the intermix between some aspects of our kingdoms, while other political elements remained paranoid in regards to each other, the two Heirs, Prince Endymion, and Princess Serenitty, were each forbidden from travelling to their counterpart's kingdom. Most of the nobles in the Golden Kingdom, not including myself, would take an alliance or merger as an attempt by Serenity to overthrow our nation and replace it with a Matriarchy like that which she ruled. Similarly, while the military might of the Silver Millenium lay within the hands of the Senshi, those of Uranus and Neptune were fanatical in their opposition to 'the Patriarchy,' and would have become violent at suggestion of a merger.

"At best, an attempted union would result in a civil war within both Kingdoms, at worst, it would have resulted in civil wars, then war between both kingdoms. Serenity and Endymion thus agreed to forbid contact between their heirs during their childhood, a political move which appeased both factions, and bought time for relations to improve. I understand you have children, Sir Tshisekedi?"

The Congolese man nodded.

"Then I am sure you have experienced the tendency of Juveniles to pursue precisely that which they are fobidden?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Tshisekedi said with a grimace.

"I will set aside that element of history for the time being, however, and move on to the other major act of King Endymion during that idyllic decade. Quietly, he began training up our mages to greater skill, while looking to recruit more, particularly those of great natural talent, in hopes of establishing an elite team capable of, if not equalling, at least contesting the Senshi. I myself was part of this program, receiving aggressive training and schooling in magic, both those elements more direct, and the esoteric lores. Rapidly arising from this program, was a talented young woman with skill and drive beyond any other, even though she was naught more than a peasant."

Nephrite paused for a moment, taking a deep breath and sighing before he continued.

" _Beryl_ ," he announced, a weight to the name that was odd in a way that Tshisekedi did not quite understand, "Who went from a simple but talented hedge-witch known only in the barony she hailed from, to being more powerful and skilled than any other known practitioner in just _eight years_. She was named Court Sorceress, and in a move designed to bind her firmly to the royal family, as well as hopefully ensure her prodigious talent was passed on to the ensuing generations, she was formally engaged to Prince Endymion, my charge."

"But forbidden romance bloomed between Serenity and Endymion," Tshisekedi said, shaking his head, "It is like a poorly-written romance novel."

"It is," Nephrite said with a nod, "Yet there is a reason that such novels sell; far too many _want_ such stories to be true. Beryl, understandably, took the news of her betrayal poorly, and at some point, when her defenses were weak, a malignant entity possessed her."

Nephrite grimaced in distaste.

"I will spare you all the details," He said flatly, "But this entity, Metallia, was then able to spread its influence, and destroy bothe Silver Millenium and the Golden Kingdom, largely by twisting our people into monsters en-masse, and then setting them upon each other. In a _single night_ , all the planets save Earth became devoid of life, and the cataclysm _here_ was so bad, that little to no remnant of our great civilization remains."

Silence reigned in the office for several minutes, as Tshisekedi processed Nephrite's story, and the General of Air allowed him to do so, idly conjuring a cup of tea to sip as he waited.

"You do realize," Tshisekedi eventually said, "That while your casual displays of supernatural power do led some measure of veracity to your tale, it largely cannot be substantiated?"

"Quite," Nephrite said with a nod.

"Then perhaps you can tell me," Tshisekedi said with a small frown, "Why should I want my people to replace a corrupt dictator, with one who may be insane?"

"The question is not whether I _will_ replace Mobutu," Nephrite said, setting aside his cup of tea, "It is what you will do in response to that. You have no means whatsoever whereby which you may remove me, and though all present could simply refuse to follow my orders, I will simply expel them from the nation, until I find subordinates who are willing to do so. In time, I intend to institute both a House of Lords, and a House of Commons, and find some degree of balance of power between the Crown, the Nobility, and the peasantry, but make no mistake I _am_ here to rule, and none present are capable of stopping me."

"But _why_?" Tshisekedi pressed, "Why do you come to Congo? You clearly are not a native, even if your story of ancient nations is true."

"Because I intend to re-establish the Golden Kingdom," Nephrite said simply, "And Congo had both the need of a less corrupt ruler, and the resources, people, territory, material, to from a core power base. If I manage to rule this nation wisely, it will become the powerful core to a resurgent Africa, and from there, a resurgent world."

"You plan to Conquer the world?" Tshisekedi asked.

"Hardly," Nephrite said, shaking his head with a faint smile, "I intend to rule as a Just King, and make war only upon those who make war upon my nation. Given the fractious nature of African Politics, I suspect that I will counterattack and thus conquer roughly half the continent before petty dictators and warlords wisen up and cease such foolishness."

"Why have you decided to do such a thing in the first place?" Tshisekedi pressed, "Do you not claim to be a General, rather than a King?"

"A cat suggested it," Nephrite said with a grin.

((()))

AN: Be _very_ wary.


	6. Chapter 6

((()))

"Right," Jaeger said as he seated himself in the _Black Lagoon's_ small galley in human form, "My name is John, though I generally go by 'Jaeger' or 'Boss.' You are?"

"Willhelm Fry, Lieutenant Senior Grade," The Navy officer replied, already starting to take down notes, "Anything you want clarified before we begin this debrief?"

"Do you have any orders while aboard the _Black Lagoon_ aside from observing and debriefing me?" Jaeger asked.

"If I find you fabricating nuclear weapons," Fry replied, staring up at Jaeger for a moment, "I'm to attempt to stop you at all costs."

"And how would you know if I was?" Jaeger asked curiously.

"I was pulled from a nuclear submarine for this duty," Fry said, "The details of my position are classified, but suffice to say I have a Masters in a specific field of Nuclear Physics."

"And if what I recall is correct," Jaeger said, visibly impressed as he leaned back in his seat, "That also means you have one hell of a security clearance for a mid-range rank."

Fry nodded.

"Well then," Jaeger said with a shrug, "What do you want to know?"

"Let's start with where you're from, and your full name?" Fry asked.

"I'm from an alternate dimension," Jaeger said, "Which either lacked a magical aspect, or I was never made aware of. Aside from that, you can consider it _almost_ identical to this reality. I was born in Duluth, Minnesota in 1986, but I'm afraid I can't give you my name. Powerful magic can be performed if someone knows your name. There's a reason I gave the most common male name in the English language."

"You don't look like your nine years old," Fry pointed out.

"I'm not," Jaeger said with a tired smile, "I'm in my mid-twenties. I was yanked out of my home reality in 2010. And if you want some advice for the future, get used to computers and the internet; real-life information technology will be better than most science fiction depicts by then. An expensive Cell Phone in 2010 has more computing power than a 1995 laptop, and aside from small screen and inefficient interface devices, can do everything that laptop can do and more, including having a built in camera, internet access through the cell network, playing movies, etc."

"That seems a rather incredible claim," Fry said neutrally.

"Compare the computers of 1980 to the computers of now," Jaeger said with a slightly predatory smile, "Then factor in using computer technology to aid further computer technology development, along with computers becoming an integrated and _essential_ part of every industry, rather than a specialized somewhat peripheral role. More resources, used more efficiently, with more expectation of profit for further development."

"Fair enough," Fry said with a shrug, "But we're getting off topic. Can we start with a general overview of magic, then your personal magical abilities, before moving on to the events in Kota Kinabalu last night?"

"Certainly," Jaeger said with a nod, "For starters, in basic conception, it's better to ask not 'Is something possible with magic?' But instead ask 'How _hard_ will this be with magic?' About the _only_ thing I know of that Magic flat-out _can't_ do, is raise the dead, and by that I mean 'dead and gone,' not 'clinically dead, but get the shock paddles.' Reviving someone who has suffered gross physical injury is entirely possible, and breadth of magic blurs where the 'we can't revive them anymore' line is, but there _is_ still a line."

"Okay," Fry said, taking a moment to finish jotting down his latest set of notes before asking his next question, "When I was briefed, they told me you'd already demonstrated teleportation, extreme mastery of electromagnetism, and some sort of personal shielding. Further, you'd claimed the ability to personally fabricate nuclear weapons. Could you elaborate on that last, and list any other abilities you'd consider to be of particular importance?"

"Transmutation," Jaeger said with a shrug, "I can restructure any element on the atomic level, changing it into any element I'm aware of the atomic configuration of. While I'm not the only magic user capable of such, it is a rather rare ability, and is only particularly dangerous if combined with the knowledge of how to weaponize nuclear materials. I couldn't tell you how many other groups in this dimension have both the knowledge and the ability, but given nothing horrible has happened thus far, it would seem that any that do aren't exactly foolish with it."

Fry nodded, continuing to take notes.

"In my own personal repetoire of abilities," Jaeger continued, "I'm also exceptionally resistant to most methods of trying to kill someone, summoning small critters capable of basic tasks, and some brute-force magical healing. Beyond that, I'd need to start elaborating on how the various forms of supernatural power actually work."

"I'm all ears," Fry said.

"Would you like me to make that literal?" Jaeger said with a rather fiendish smile.

"...No," Fry replied.

"Right then," Jaeger continued with a smile in his voice, "First off, supernatural abilities, at lest those I am educated in regards to, fall in to the categories of Ki, Psionics, and Magic, which I've listed in ascending order of power, but descending order of ease of use. Anyone can learn to use Ki, but you have to be _Gifted_ for the others, which is..."

"Since Gratius and Peter were 'on the ground,'" Claudia said, itching at the freshly-regenerated arm she was sporting, "They'll handle the primary debrief. I'll add a few comments on the second operation."

The Legate in command of the Striker teams turned his attention to Striker's One and Two, and One took the conversational initiative.

"As our Seers had determined," Gratius said, leaning forward over the conference table they were seated around, and laying his hand on the artifact mounted to its center, activating an illusion projector that was fed from his own memories, revealing a slightly-distorted view of Fujiwara Beryl's hospital room, "There were two primary provocateurs involved in the amnesia bomb. This is Fujiwara Beryl, a cousin of the Japanese Imperial Family, and the target we've ultimately determined to be secondary. She was in the hospital, sedated, due to some form of seizure attack, which we suspect may be her own side-effect from the spell. We _almost_ secured, but Striker Three's attempt is what lead to initial contact with the OpFor."

The image shifted as Gratius' memories 'played forward,' revealing the abrupt appearance of a large, bare-chested man, who seized Striker Three's wrist, then effortlessly deflected the Praetorian's electric counterattack.

"He demanded the reasons for our presence, and announced that violence was forbidden in the hospital, as well as us not being permitted to remove Fujiwara. After Claudia ordered us to neutralize interlopers, we put him down, and _seemed_ to have killed him."

The image shifted to show the man with a gaping hole through his chest, bleeding profusely onto the floor.

"Fujiwara fled the room while we were busy with the hostile, and we both left in pursuit. Three was rerouted to support Two and Four, who had made contact with further hostiles, and I continued after Fujiwara, impeded by the general panic within the hospital. Shortly before I could interdict Fujiwara, the hostile caught up with me again."

The image shifted to show the large man, the hole through his chest and lung completely healed, with one arm pinning Striker One into place, the other inbound towards Gratius' face.

"He was marginally skilled in melee, but very clever in using his raw strength to compensate for what he lacked in pure skill. Further, correlating our perceptions during the battle, we've determined that he is a Psychic, a Mage, _and_ a Ki Adept. We're almost certainly dealing with a transhuman Hermit. He knocked me out, after which Five retrieved me remotely."

The Legate swore slightly under his breath, but turned his attention to Striker Two, who continued the debrief.

"I engaged the other hostiles," Peter said, taking over the illusion-projector, "The first of which I suspect is simply another of East Asia's martial arts prodigies."

The image of Kino Makoto, five feet ten and muscular for a woman, coalesced over the table, a furious determination readily visible in the teen's eyes.

"She fought with extremely impressive skill," Peter continued, "Though if she'd not cross-trained in so many defensive arts, I'd have quickly defeated her. As it was, I still had the edge, until this woman intervened:"

The Japanese teen's image was supplanted by that of a fit young western woman, one with a visibly fit athletic build, and a hard edge to her expression. Placed alongside her was an immense white-furred Werewolf, snarling as it clawed at the perspective point for the image.

"She didn't even bother to shift forms until Striker Three arrived to reinforce Four and I," Peter said, "Which is about when the teen put her fist through Four's chest. She freaked when that happened, which is part of why I think she's not an experienced combatant, no experience with killing. Five called extraction at that point, and we bugged out. This,"

An image of a short, blonde Japanese girl with ridiculously long hair coalesced over the table.

"Is the primary. She is either wearing a child's face, and thus possibly of indeterminate gender, or we're looking at a pawn. Given what happened with the Hermit in both the first and second encounters, he's the current primary candidate for the chessmaster."

"The second encounter," Claudia picked up, "We took the initiative more solidly, but it ultimately played out the same way as the first, except more so."

Taking over the projector, Claudia called up the image of a luxury cruise liner, before focusing in on one of the villas built into its superstructure. The perspective given through the scope of her sniper rifle panned around a bit, before zeroing in on the Hermit, who was embracing the teen martial artist. Even with moderately-enchanted rounds, it took two shots to shatter his telekinetic barrier and put him down.

"At this point, I was also sending every summon I feasibly could without exhausting myself," Claudia continued, "And they initially took control of the top deck, neutralizing all mundane contacts quickly. The Werewolf re-engaged, but was occupied for what _should_ have been long enough to complete the op."

"I went below deck to retrieve the rookie," Strike Two said, leaning back in to project an image of Leo Kazinski with his wrists cuffed to a metal rod that was floating in midair, "The cuffs apparently blocked teleportation, and I couldn't damage the rod or the cuffs with anything remotely situationally appropriate. I was considering attempting something messier, and letting the healers grow back his hands after the op was completed, when Claudia called for us to bug out."

"Which leads to the crux of the engagement," Striker One interjected, taking over the projector to display the inside of the villa where the Japanese teens had been huddled together, "Two hostiles that _should_ have been out of commission."

The projector focused in on the unconscious middle-aged western woman and the Japanese doctor trying to keep her from bleeding out, before shifting to the Hermit's headless corpse, as well as the large splatter-pattern of bone, brains, and blood strewn across the interior wall of the villa.

"Striker Four returned to the villa to collect the white healer," Gratius continued, "This is more or less the last condition I saw them in before I left with the primary."

Gratius removed his hand from the projector, and Claudia took over again. Her face visibly strained with concentration as she played back her memory of the healer, then the Hermit, both coming back to consciousness, the healer summoning a cone of fire that effectively incinerated Striker Four, and the Hermit shrugging off another .50 caliber round, before launching Striker Four's sword as an improvised projectile at her. The playback cut off in a blinding flash of light, and Claudia winced.

"That's when I lost the arm and called for bugout," She said, itching at her new arm again, "Possibly even more concerning than his vampire-like traits, is how _fast_ he was back up and at it, and still got the shot off even though I hit him again."

"And the final part of the engagement," Striker One said with a sigh, taking over the projector again to show them his memory of the Werewolf nearly taking his head off, then seizing the primary and going overboard while he was still on backfoot.

Silence reigned in the briefing room for long minutes, until the Legate sighed, rubbing his temples with both hands.

"The Cardinal will _never_ let me hear the end of this," He said with some disgruntlement, "He's been pressing for more aggressive policy towards hermits basically since he stepped into the blue clergy. Given how little attention they draw to themselves, up until now it's been something he brings up maybe twice a year, but now..."

The Legate sighed again, before turning his attention to Claudia and Gratius.

"Designate the regenerator as 'Troll,' and circulate what you've learned of his and his team with the other Strikers. I haven't checked with them in a couple hours, but last I did, the Scry-teams had Troll making contact with mundane US naval assets in the Pacific fleet, and you _know_ that by now other orgs are going to have their eyes on him. Take 12 hours for R&R, then link up with Perk's group. He's in charge of trying to recover the rest of the people we've lost, and given that we've lost the initiative, we'll need to be at full strength before we make another play.

"For the record, I agree with your decision to bug out, both times. You were going in with limited intel the first time, and incomplete intel the second time; this is exactly why we try to never do that, and if you hadn't pulled, you probably would have lost the rest of the team. I'll be telling the rest of the Senate the same thing when I brief them."

"Thank you sir," Claudia said, nodding sharply.

"You're welcome," the Legate said, "Dismissed."

"How's she doing?" Lynette asked as she stepped into the small cabin where the burn victim was being kept.

"Clingy," Artemis said with some humor, and Lynette managed a tired smile when she saw the Mau's predicament.

A fair bit of the girl's right arm was covered in a cast, but her left was free, and she'd clamped it down over Artemis, holding him tightly to her chest while she slept.

"Definitely proper sleep then," Lynette said tiredly as she slumped down to sit on the end of the girl's cot, "People who are comatose or knocked out don't retain that kind of muscle control. Is she hurting you?"

Artemis shook his head.

"Then it's probably best we let her be clingy, for the time being. Boss hasn't said much, but from what I gather, she's out of time, and will probably have more emotional trauma than physical once she wakes up. Given the train wreck the other girls' mental states are, she's probably not going to be getting as much attention as she should."

Luna poked Artemis, who turned to study the dark-furred Mau's expression for a while, before nodding, and turning back to Lyn.

"Two questions," Artemis said, "First, how are the Senshi doing?"

"About exactly as well as you'd expect a bunch of sheltered teenagers to," Lyn said tiredly, leaning back against the bulkhead, "When they're in the middle of a battlefield, and someone tries to kidnap one of them. Kino is, ironically enough, doing best, now that she knows she didn't _permanently_ kill anyone. Unfortunately, that suggests she's had a pretty ugly life before now, so whatever trauma she _doesn't_ have as much of, she probably has that much more baggage from growing up an orphan. If we can actually get them somewhere _secure_ , they should be alright, especially given Boss isn't actually dead, but it's going to take time, and they're going to have to grow up faster than they really should need to."

"You sound like you've dealt with this sort of thing before," Artemis said gently.

"I was a trauma surgeon in Chicago for more than ten years," Lynette said, closing her eyes as she leaned her head back against the bulkhead, "A lot of messed up kids go through there. The ones who've been stabbed, shot, or just roughed up by the gang violence are usually the _easier_ ones to deal with. What was the second question?"

"Luna still can't speak," Artemis said with a wince, "Can you break the geas on her for that?"

"Probably not," Lynette said faintly, shaking her head slightly as she spoke, "Usagi's wish was absurdly powerful. I'll try in the morning when my reserves are refreshed, but I'm nowhere near as strong as that rock was."

"What do you-" Artemis cut himself off and managed the cat equivalent of a bittersweet smile.

Lynette had fallen asleep.

When the _Black Lagoon_ reached Okinawa, it was not to the sort of greeting its crew was either accustomed, or desired. The _USS_ _Kitty Hawk,_ along with the rest of Carrier Strike Group Eleven, were arrayed to the heavily-miltiarized island's southwest; more than enough to handle any military threat that a single torpedo boat might pose.

" _Black Lagoon_ , this is _Kitty Hawk_. I've been advised you have precious cargo, and am directing you to Makiko bay."

Benny, the _Lagoon's_ electronics and radio operator (as well as all-around nerd) paused for a moment before replying.

" _Kitty Hawk,"_ Benny said, "This is _Black Lagoon_. Makiko bay is on the northwestern shore of the southern spur, right?"

"Correct, _Black Lagoon_ ," The radio operator from the carrier replied, "We'll keep an eye out for bogeys. Look out for red carpets."

 _Great_ , Benny thought, _Revy is_ not _going to like this._

"I don't like showboating like this," Caitlyn grumbled as she studied the dock they were closing in on.

"It could be a _lot_ worse," Jaeger (in human form) said quietly, and Caitlyn was forced to nod.

The party waiting to meet them was perhaps twenty strong, half of those armed Marines, accompanied by two civilians, and a mixed assortment of JSDF and US Officers. The military party was drawing a fair bit of attention, given that they were waiting for the _Black Lagoon_ at a civilian marina, but fortunately, none of the press had thought to show up yet; Jaeger intended to keep it that way.

"Who all wants to come talk with the bigwigs?" He asked, turning to the half-dozen individuals who were on the forward deck of the Black Lagoon.

"I will be returning to tender my report, of course," Lieutenant Fry said.

"I'll come," Lynette said with a yawn, "Caitlyn, you should probably stay, we need a heavy hitter to keep an eye on the girls."

"I'll be coming, of course," Natsuna said, "Mizuno-san, would you care to join us?"

"No," Saeko said, shaking her head, "I'm far too tired for politics."

"Rock," Dutch said, "I want you going with them, keep your eyes open."

"Yes boss," Rock said, tossing off a casual salute, before turning to Jaeger, "So, how are we going to do this?"

"As quickly as possible," Jaeger said, moving up to the prow of the ship as it neared the dock, "We want to get away from media eyes ASAP."

He jumped up onto the pier before the _Black Lagoon_ had actually made physical contact with it; the rest of the shore party wasn't far behind, Lynette jumping up on her own, Rock assisting Natsuna off of the boat.

"Lieutenant Fry," one of the US officers called, "You're with me."

"Sir," Fry replied with a salute, before jogging to one of the HUMVEEs, which began moving almost before the two soldiers had finished entering.

"And what about the rest of us?" Jaeger asked, studying the remaining members of the greeting party.

"We'll be following along," One of the civilians said, stepping forward and raising a hand for a shake, "I'm Archibald Running-Creek. Technically I'm attached to the US Embassy in Tokyo, but functionally I'm the local liaison between USJF and local civvies."

"You can call me Jaeger," Jaeger replied, "My compatriots here are Sakurada Natsuna, of the TMPD, and Lyn, a doctor of considerable ability. She also generally functions as the 'older and wiser' member of our team."

"Glad to meet you ladies," Creek said, offering his hand to shake for each of them, "I've been told to show you around Okinawa, the Futenma base, or both for the next couple hours, which really means the military brass want time to debrief Lieutenant Fry, so how do you all feel about starting with some food?"

"How's the pizza on Okinawa?" Jaeger immediately asked, "I haven't had a decent pizza since two reality-threatening crises ago."

"I'll let you judge for yourself," Creek said with a smile, before gesturing to the remaining HUMVEES on the pier, "Let's get going."

"And he made at least partial demonstration of each of these abilities," Fry concluded, "I asked for specific forms of demonstration, most of which he was able to perform on demand, and with those few which he was not, he was able to reasonably explain. My professional judgment is that he's proven honest beyond any _reasonable_ doubt."

"And what would you say the most dangerous ability he demonstrated was?" One of the flag officers attending the debrief via videoconference asked.

"Definitely the ability to lay out mental inhibitions," Fry said without hesitation, "He directly claimed that it is a field he's limited in, but he was still able to forbid me from standing up from my chair. My muscles simply refused to follow my commands. According to him, sifting through a subject's memories, _altering_ their memories, and outright mind _control_ are all possible for more skilled or specialized practitioners. He did also claim that the more invasive a power it is, the easier it is to resist, and that dedicated training can raise resistance overall, but it was still a terrifying prospect."

"Any further recommendations?" Another officer, this one a Colonel, asked.

"He's just out of a combat zone," Fry said, "Please keep that in mind in whatever course of action is decided."

"Mister Jaeger," A man in a two-star Marine general's uniform greeted, "I'm Harry Thomas, and I've been put in charge of Okinawa Marine assets for the time being. Have a seat."

He gestured for them to join them in the rather nicely appointed, and more importantly _air-conditioned_ , conference room they had been escorted to. Thomas himself was seated at the end of the table, and Running-Creek ended up seating himself beside the flag officer, while Jaeger, Natsuna, and Lynette seated themselves on the near side of the table to the door. Unlike most conference rooms, there were no windows, and a miniscule pulse of electromagnetic energy confirmed for Jaeger that the walls were backed by steel, making the room as secure as reasonably possible.

"I was part of Lieutenant Fry's debrief," General Thomas continued, "And my job at this point is to consult with you about what security arrangements you think will be appropriate, while the Joint Chiefs discuss overarching strategy in response to your situation and other events that have occurred either on US soil, or that of our allies. A representative of the Imperial Family of Japan is en-route with escorts to see to Miss Fujiwara's protection as well. Unfortunately, while we're currently asking soldiers with 'exotic' abilities to step forward and offer their services, currently your team is the only one with relevant experience in the field. So, aside from being in the middle of a Marine base with a Carrier Group on tap, what would you recommend in the way of security?"

"Unfortunately," Jaeger said with a shake of his head, "While some degree of counter-paranatural security can be effected without 'specialists' of your own, it takes time and prep. Mostly, it involves what is currently higher-end technology; computerized detection systems, closed-circuit video monitoring, thermal sensors, all of it as concealed as reasonably possible. Putting a 'cut-out' between your security personnel and potential intruders makes it a lot harder to beguile them, as well as outright defeating some forms of illusion. The most powerful stuff you pretty much _can't_ protect against without casters of your own, or people with utterly indomitable will, but discipline, planning, and heavy implementation of the right technology, can guard against the lower level stuff quite effectively."

"Do either of you ladies have anything to add?" Thomas asked, turning away from Jaeger for a moment.

"If you can, focus on getting some healers," Lynette replied immediately, "I was a practicing trauma surgeon for almost twenty years, working in Chicago, before I even learned of the existence of magic. Stopping blood loss is one of the most basic applications of healing magic, and that'll stabilize most battlefield wounds that aren't immediately lethal for later treatment. Higher level healing magic can restore literally any injury that hasn't been fatal, but healers on that level are exceedingly rare."

"Invest in higher-power personal arms and armor-piercing rounds," Natsuna added, "I've only taken part in one engagement against supernatural foes, but a distressing number of hostiles were immune to pistol fire. Nine millimeters simply was not enough."

 _Thomas spent a good quarter hour picking our brains for details regarding how to counter magical threats, and very clearly knew what he was about. It was reassuring, after the last couple years of conflicts where I was either fighting solo or with just a handful of others supporting me, to potentially have the largest military in the world backing me up._

 _During that quarter hour, I also started to get some odd 'pings' from my ad-hoc Electromagnetic 'sense.' It was hard to properly read through the buffer of the steel walls, but considering what happened once the Joint Chiefs got back on the line, I was happy that another old friend was most likely waiting for me outside._

"Where are you from, 'Jaeger'?" The man on the screen, apparently the current Secretary of Defense, asked.

"I was born in Minnesota," Jaeger replied, "I'd rather not give specifics when someone might be listening in."

"Good enough for our purposes," The Secretary said with a nod, "I've been instructed to offer you a commission in the US Marines at the rank of Captain."

"That's highly irregular," Jaeger said, raising an eye curiously, "Last I checked, the US military inducts all soldiers, officer or enlisted, at the bottom of the chain of command."

"Exceptions are made for those who've served with rank in allied militaries," The Secretary replied, "Which is the precedent we're using in your case."

"And if I decline the offer?" Jaeger asked.

"Then we'll be drafting you in as a private," the Secretary replied without missing a beat, "Service to your nation in time of crisis is compulsory."

"And what is to happen to those currently under my protection?" Jaeger asked.

"That's classified," The Secretary replied, "Though I can reveal you will be involved in the protection detail."

"Yeah," Jaeger replied, shaking his head slowly, "How about _no?_ I'm not actually eligible for your draft."

"You said it yourself," The Secretary replied, "You're a born US citizen, your accent generally confirms you as a midwesterner, and the law is pretty clear about the power of the Federal Government to draft adult males in."

"See," Jaeger replied, "That's the thing. I was born in 1986, in a United States of America in a different dimension. Am I eligible for the draft? Absolutely. Am I eligible for _your_ draft? No."

General Thomas closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath, which drew Jaeger's attention, though the Secretary didn't appear to notice.

"I think you'll find the courts will disagree with you on that one," The Secretary said, a hint of irritation slipping into his voice, "As I said, service is _compulsory_."

Jaeger _laughed_ , though there was a bitter tinge to it.

"You don't have a chance in _hell_ of enforcing that," He said flatly, standing as he glared at the Secretary of Defense, "You don't have my last name, and my first name is _literally_ the most common in the English language for males. I'm fairly sure Minnesota has over a million citizens, and even if I _do_ have a dimensional analogue here, like I said, he'll be all of ten years old. You don't have a chance in _hell_ of making any attempt to legally compel me stick."

"I have orders _directly_ from the Oval Office," The Secretary said harshly, "Orders that-"

"SHUT IT!" Jaeger roared, slamming his fists down onto the conference table, and shattering the surface in the process, "Tell me, have you even _SPOKEN_ with an experienced supernatural combatant? Have you gotten after-action reports from the two engagements in Kota Kinabalu? Have you received the transcript of our interrogation of our prisoner?"

"We have the best assets availa-" The Secretary began but Jaeger cut him off again.

"Yeah, that's what I _thought_ ," Jaeger snarled, rising to his feet as he glared at the projection, "I _know_ what the man you serve did in my timeline, and I _supremely_ doubt he has any more integrity here than he did there. You don't know _jack shit_ , but you're already trying to throw your weight around. You are currently the very _definition_ of a REMF, and since I both have no Oath to you or anyone in your chain of command, I _don't_ have to put up with your Bullshit. I'll give you _one_ more chance to convince me to _work_ with you rather than avoid US entanglements until such time as I decide I'd be dealing with _competent_ leadership."

"General Thomas," The Secretary snarled, turning his attention to the sole uniformed man in the room, "Ar-"

He was cut off by a gesture from Lynette, who let off a sigh as the Secretary's image continued to silently rail on.

"Jaeger," She said calmly, "Cool it."

Belatedly, those present realized that the man in questions fists had started glowing, and the shattered bits of table around his feet were rattling across the floor, _away_ from him. A short, sharp exhalation later, the glowing and rattling stopped, and Jaeger turned his attention towards the doctor.

"Why are you reacting so forcefully?" Lynette asked.

"Because I _know_ the history of this administration," Jaeger replied with a snarl, "And it's _incompetent_ in handling small-scale military operations and conflicts. If we let them treat us like minions, rather than allies, people _will_ get killed needlessly, and Usagi may end up dead or in the hands of those who would try to turn her abilities to horrific ends."

Lynette said nothing for some time, processing Jaeger's words.

"I doubt I can offer you safe haven," Natsuna cut in, "If you've pissed off the US Government. My own government isn't likely to argue with yours over matters of military security."

"Will they let the Feds take Fujiwara?" Jaeger asked.

"A member of the Imperial family?" Natsuna said with a hollow laugh, "If she's allowed to bring a battalion of JSDF personnel along as guards, sure. Otherwise, no way. The nationalists would spark a civil war, albeit a short-lived one."

"Then I'll entrust her to your care for the time being," Jaeger said with a sigh, before turning towards General Thomas and Running-Creek, "Thank you for your hospitality, gentlemen. While I may be in conflict with your leadership, you yourselves have been nothing but cordial and professional. Please extend my thanks to the fleet detachment that worked with us in Kota Kinabalu, and to Lieutenant Fry in particular."

"I'll pass your words along," General Thomas said with a somewhat-strained smile, "Wherever you go next, please don't provoke my superiors again."

"I'll try," Jaeger said with a grimace, before turning and opening the door, "Mostly by avoiding contact. You coming with, Miss Sakurada?"

"No," Natsuna said with a sigh, "I'm going to have to keep working with the Americans either way. Better to smooth things over on my part as much as I can."

Outside the building with the conference hall, a 'new,' and _very_ shiny HUMVEE was driving up just as Jaeger and Lynette stepped out; the passenger-side doors opened of their own accord as the pair approached.

"You are entirely too hard to track down," the 'driver' said as the pair climbed in, "And no offense Lynette, but the girls aren't anywhere _near_ as much fun to hang out with as you."

"Good to see you too Blaze," Jaeger replied with a wry smile, "What are things looking like on the global scale here?"

"Dicey," Blaze said as the HUMVEE dropped into gear and peeled out, heading towards the base perimeter, "The planetary data network here leaves a lot to be desired, but it's still vastly superior to the one two dimensions back. It looks like some supernatural group has been raiding all across the planet."

"Does it look like the group that attacked us in Malaysia?" Jaeger asked.

"No," Blaze replied, the 'driver' shaking its head, "They're actually one of the groups under attack, as best as I can tell."

Gratius _hated_ being woken from sleep prematurely. He liked being awoken by the wall to his dormitory being blasted even less.

As he often did since gaining his position as Striker One, Gratius expressed his displeasure via Magical Shotgun.

The strange golem that had knocked in the stone wall handled his displeasure about as well as anything else did.

"Striker One," He barked after sweeping his earpiece up off of the small nightstand beside his bed, "Sitrep!"

He received nothing but static over the line.

A second golem stormed through the breach in the wall; it proved no more resistant to buckshot than the first. Gratius stomped over to the closet where he kept his bodyarmor, shotgun remaining trained on the breach in the wall as he moved. Shrugging into as much of his Kevlar/Titanium composite armor as possible with just one hand was awkward, but proved necessary. The third golem through the wall was resistant to buckshot, so Gratius switched to steel-cored slugs; three of those destroyed it handily.

After the third he risked dropping his shotgun for a few seconds in order to get his armor's chest-piece on, something that couldn't really be managed without the use of both arms, a risk taken that almost cost him his life when _two_ more golems entered his dormitory, smashing new holes in the wall as they did so.

"Bastards don't know how to take a hint," Gratius snarled as he dropped to his back and rolled, the unclasped back-piece of his armor nearly breaking the roll.

The golems were tough and strong, but not particularly agile, and Gratius very nearly _danced_ around them, only taking one blow that would even _bruise_ in spite of the relatively tight quarters of his bedroom.

Then he finished gathering energies for his spell, and slammed an orb of destructive energy into one of the golems chest, bowling it over, though not completely destroying it. More importantly, it gave him the opening he needed to sweep his shotgun back up and switch the fire-selector to 'full auto.'

It took him less than six seconds to finish dusting the golems after that.

"And _that_ ," He growled, "Is why you don't send a construct to do a man's job."

Electing to leave the dormitory via the improvised exits rather than the door, he moved through one empty room before stepping out into the compound's western courtyard, and growled.

There were _dozens_ of the golems swarming through the courtyard; the sentries and patrol assigned to that stretch of the compound were dead, and it was clear that at present rates, the gun and spell-fire keeping the constructs out of the central pavilion and southern courtyard weren't going to be enough.

"Damn opportunists," Gratius growled as he dropped into a crouch and checked the status of his gun's magically-expanded magazine, "Time to teach whoever the hell this is a _lesson_ in why you _don't_ F#$( with the Praetorians."

Automatic shotguns aren't designed to serve as street-sweepers, but with a supernaturally durable barrel, extradimensional ammo capacity, and a certified sharpshooter at the trigger, they can do a _damn_ good impression.

 _When we returned to the Black Lagoon, the representative from the Imperial Family had already arrived to meet with Beryl. He was, to my mild surprise, a mage of middling power himself, and he was every bit as formal (and formally dressed) as you'd expect someone from traditional Japanese society to be. By the time we were aboard ship, it seemed he'd already convinced Beryl to return to Tokyo with him, aboard a JSDF ship, which would be escorted by a pair of JSDF destroyers and one of their helicopter carriers._

 _To be clear, due to treaties signed by Japan to end World War II, they're actually forbidden as a nation from building conventional aircraft carriers, essentially because of how good carriers are at projecting military power. More recently, they've_ somewhat _skirted this restriction by building 'pocket carriers' which carry only helicopters. They've nowhere near the range or capacity of an American Supercarrier, but they're solid defensive and anti-submarine weapons._

 _Beryl choosing to leave was both a good and bad thing. Bad, because I wasn't entirely certain of how well the Japanese would be able to protect her, and good, because it gave me an opportunity to both throw off other pursuit, and set up a meeting between myself and what there was in the way of parents for the Senshi. Given that Mizuno Saeko was already aboard ship, that left Rei's grandfather, Usagi's parents, and trying to figure out where Minako's absentee parents were._

 _To facilitate this, when Fujiwara Beryl boarded the JSDF missile cruiser, 'Tsukino Usagi' very visibly boarded the ship as well, 'accidentally' letting a team of local reporters that had (finally) shown up get a shot of her face as she moved up the gangplank._

 _The Black Lagoon, and those aboard her, were already out to sea by that point, and garnered no direct media attention whatsoever._

"What the _hell_ is going on out here?" the Legate demanded as he stepped into the western courtyard.

"Not much," Striker One said around a gold-emblazoned shotgun shell stuck in his mouth, while he efficiently loaded standard slugs into his shotgun's magazine with his hands, "Things were exciting about three minutes ago, but they've cooled off."

The Legate surveyed the courtyard briefly, most of it covered with broken golems, though seven corpses and three bandaged bodies were grouped around Striker One's 'seat.' One's 'seat' was comprised of a half-dozen golems piled together.

"The rest of the compound has been secured," the Legate eventually said, "I'll have relief here with medical support ASAP. Come to the central briefing room immediately afterwards. We already know that we weren't the only ones hit here, but I'll be damned if we won't be the first to respond."

"How do you do this?" Beryl asked the 'girl' sitting beside her in the closest thing to guest quarters the JSDF Destroyer had.

"Deal with the stress of the world going mad?" the doppleganger of Tsukino Usagi replied.

Beryl nodded.

"A lot of factors go into that," 'she' replied, "But I tend to doubt you're up for a long philosophical discourse just now."

Beryl nodded again.

"I'll keep things short then. When you woke up in that hospital, with the two thugs standing over you, why did you run when they were distracted?"

The question surprised Beryl, but once she wrapped her mind around it, the answer came quite easily to her.

"Two reasons," she said softly, "The most immediate fear, but the one I suspect you are focusing on, is that _not_ fleeing would have resulted in something much worse."

"Exactly," 'Usagi' said with a tired sigh, "It would be very easy, from a purely pragmatic perspective, to go be a hermit somewhere. But I absolutely _cannot_ simply stand by and do _nothing_ when people are in such danger in front of me, when the whole world is threatened."

"I suppose," Fujiwara Beryl replied softly, "That's why I decided to go into medical research."

"Why wasn't I given any say in this" Saeko asked bluntly.

"You were given the opportunity," Lynette said with a sigh, "When you were given a chance to meet with the US military with us. You can also, of course, always choose to split off and head back to Tokyo with yourself and your daughter. I'm sure Jaeger would be willing to teleport you over. I wouldn't recommend it though."

"For reasons of safety, I assume?" Saeko asked.

"Yes," Caitlyn replied as she dropped down below the deck of the _Black Lagoon_ , before turning to speak to Lynette "Blaze is busy chatting with Benny, they're working on picking out a more permanent destination, but Dutch is willing to make port in Ansan, Korea, in the meantime."

"I don't recognize Ansan by name," Lynette said, "Why did Blaze pick it?"

"It's a new industrial city connected to Seoul," Caitlyn said, "Blaze picked it because it has a port, and is a good connection point to anywhere in South Korea by ground, or the rest of the world by Air. We could also set back out to sea if it's desired, overtly or covertly. A fair number of cargo ships go through."

"It'll do for now," Lynette said, "We'll need to brief the girls, but we should wait for Boss to get back before planning out the next step."

"Brief the girls on what?" Saeko asked.

"Going into hiding," Lynette replied, "Which, if you plan to remain with us, we'll need to fill you in on as well. We've done this before, though it was with a single pre-teen boy, some of the principles will remain the same."

"...Why on _earth_ were you hiding a child?" Saeko asked, starting to feel more than a little out of her depth.

"He was the subject of a magical doom prophecy," Caitlyn replied with a snort, "And the Powers That Be were more concerned with having control of his life, than making sure he had a non-traumatic chidlhood. By the way, _don't_ ask Boss, you call him Jaeger, about all that. I haven't gotten all the gory details out of him yet, but it's pretty clear that when the consequences of our meddling finally caught up with him, things were Not Fun for him. It took more than a year for us to finally catch up with him here in your dimension."

"Noted," Saeko said, "But I'm more concerned with what all will be involved with going into hiding here, _especially_ hiding from magical searchers."

"First off," Lynette said, "Minor transformative spells to change facial features and hair coloration. Most of you stick out like sore thumbs. Forged identities, probably some spells to let you all speak the local language of wherever we end up without accent, and then another handful of spells to mask the signature of those. Jaeger _used_ to be a dab hand at spells to block scrying, but apparently he lost that ability somewhere along the way, and as a result, I'm needing to pick up at least one form thereof here."

"After that," Caitlyn picked up, "We'll be inventing backstories for everyone. It'll be fairly easy for most of the girls, like with Harry, given they're used to living pretty independently, or outright so in Makoto's case. Usagi and your daughter are the only ones with regular interaction with their parents, which will make things a fair bit different. Are you alright with being magically de-aged?"

"...What?" Saeko asked, more than a little surprised by the question.

"Mostly illusionary," Lynette replied waving dismissively, "You're pretty high-profile within your field, and another high-skill Oncologist popping up in connection to a group of teenage girls would be exactly the kind of hint we don't want to give whoever will be tracking us. With Harry, it was easy, because nobody knew just who had taken him or where, so we didn't have to worry about establishing a household with a doctor, young woman, twenty-something man, and little boy. With the girls, the Tsukiuo family, and yourself, anybody who does a modest bit of digging will know exactly what people they're looking for."

"So, we'll want to disguise you either as a much younger or older woman," Caitlyn continued, "Unless you're up to living disguised as a guy."

Saeko shook her head sharply.

"Yeah, didn't think so," Caitlyn said, "Anyways, the Tsukinos will be easy to hide. Mrs. Tsukino is a housewife, mister Tsukino we can find some semi-skilled work for, then a one-boy-one-girl family unit is about the most generic family in the modern world. Give Usagi a magical boost to her balance, and she goes from 'somewhat ditzy blonde' to 'jock girl,' which should be enough to keep her below the radar. We might even fold Minako into their pretend family, depending on if they're up to it."

"Makoto and Rei we'll probably pass off as sisters," Lynette continued, "They're both tall and proactive, risk-taking personalities, though I don't know them much beyond that. Details will depend on who knows them for doing what back in Tokyo, and how much we can get them to change that without breaking character."

"Ami will be fairly easy," Caitlyn said, "'Age' her a little, and she goes from a ridiculously over-performing Freshman, to a slightly-below-top-of-the-class Senior."

"You think Ami couldn't manage perfect grades?" Saeko demanded, sharply protective instinct suddenly snapping to the fore.

"I have no idea," Caitlyn said with a shrug, "But she _won't_ , because we need her to _not_ be immediately connected to who she is 'out of disguise.' From what I've gathered, she's known for being anti-social, so we'll stick her with some group or another that's extremely social, and we'll need to coach her into being at least nominally participatory so it won't be obvious she's being shoe-horned into a roll."

"'Nominally Participatory?'" Lynette said with a bemused smile, "Planning on trying to play the 'big words game' to impress Boss again?"

"Shut _up_ ," Caitlyn said flatly, though to Saeko's considerable surprise, she was also blushing furiously, "That aside, Miss Mizuno, is there any field in college you'd always wanted to study, but is far enough away from medical work that it wouldn't be fairly obvious you already know the material?"

"Why?" Saeko asked, fairly sure she already knew the answer.

"Our best options for you," Lynette said, "Are either age you down to pass as Ami's older sister, or up to pass as her grandmother. I'm fairly sure you'd not really welcome anything else that would lead to a more distant relationship, and 'Aunt' is too close to your real age to be viable as a disguise here. Assuming, of course, that you still plan to stay with us, and not return to Tokyo on your own, where I'm sure Natsuna would be quite willing to lend you what protection she is able."

Saeko was silent for some time as she considered her answer.

"How can you already have planned all this out?" She eventually said, "I feel I've barely had time to _think_ with all that has been happening."

"We hadn't," Caitlyn replied with a shrug, "We were literally pitching these ideas for the first time right now. We are, however, more or less professionals at this. So, what'll it be?"

"Atella will be handling the larger portion of this briefing," the Legate said, nodding towards a pretty young brunette woman with a bandage over her right eye, "She's just had her ears and eye regenerated, and they're still over-sensitive, so please keep questions and comments to a respectful volume."

Gratius nodded, and the other ranking members of the Praetorians around the conference table did likewise. Unlike what such a meeting would have included a month ago, this meeting only included members from four of the five Striker Teams, and he was currently the _only_ member of the Primus team on hand.

"I was the diviner tasked with trying to track the source of the golem attack," Atella said, her voice, though soft, carrying the harsher consonant formation of someone who grew up speaking German, rather than Italian like most of the Praetorians, "Something which proved significantly more difficult than expected. Samples taken from the lesser golems showed an origin almost directly outside of the compound; they were raised on sight. Using the more durable golems as a divination focii revealed the same result; it wasn't until I was given a sample of one of the _intelligent_ golems that I was able to track a source that was well-distant."

She paused for a moment to take a deep breath, raising her right hand to delicately stroke the bandage over her eye.

"I was forced to look beyond what most would consider a viable range for even a master diviner; the faction that sent the golems was not based upon Earth, but upon the _Moon._ "

A sussuration of whispers passed through the room, and Atella waited for it to pass by, continuing to stroke the bandage over her eye as she did so. When silence reigned once more, she continued.

"I was able to scry upon a council of four men and five women, of which two of the men were clearly the leaders. All of them bore a mark upon their foreheads, in the shape of an inverted black crescent moon, and they were discussing the results of _attacks_ on various 'sites of high magical concentration' spread throughout the entire _world._ They detected my surveillance swiftly, but from what was said, I believe it is most likely that they did not find whatever it was they were looking for, though they considered the attacks to have allowed them to examine each site in sufficient detail to ascertain that what they sought was elsewhere. Upon detection, one of the two leaders, a man whose features were obscured by a cloak, attacked me through my divination, destroying my ears and damaging my eyes."

Atella's other hand rose to briefly fondle her left ear.

"According to the healers, he used a destructive form of magic, which cursed the wounds, a curse which then had to be broken before healing was even possible. As a final note, aside from the cloaked man, they were dressed in the apparel one would expect of a ruling nobility, not military professionals or a magus order."

"Thank you Atella," the Legate said, clapping a hand on the young woman's shoulder, "You're dismissed; go get some rest."

"Thank you sir," The young woman nodded, before standing and leaving the briefing room.

"Through diplomatic channels and our other diviners," The Legate said, "We've confirmed attacks on the Minutemen, the Skalds, the Sun Order, the Shugenja, and whatever it is that's operating in China these days. The Minutemen were hit at _three_ different sites, their Virginia, Colorado, and Oregon facilities, according to their representative, they repelled all three attacks with light casualties, though I suspect they were moderate, rather than light. None of the attacking groups consisted of anything more than the golems, and they were _simultaneous."_

He paused for a moment to allow that to sink in.

"Whoever this faction is," he continued grimly, "They deployed all of these strikes _simultaneously_. It would be bad enough if this was simply a high-skill faction that somehow managed to secure a habitable base on the damn _moon_ , but the fact that most of the golems that attacked here were created _on-site_ , suggest that this isn't simply the results of decades of stockpiling, but instead a combat capability that they can _regularly_ field. We don't even know what their mages _proper_ are capable of in direct combat yet. And possibly the _worst_ aspect of all this, is that these newcomers made no effort whatsoever to maintain the veil; our own wards are particularly strong, and the Minutemen's relationship with the mundane American government might help them keep a lid on things, but most places that were hit, mundane authorities will be investigating, and doing so by the _hundred._

"And possibly _worse,_ " The Legate said, a rare show of anger visible in his voice, "Some nut down in Africa has gone and decided to pull a coup in Congo. Specifically, a _magical_ someone; our intelligence is limited due to the current circumstances, but apparently he's good enough that nobody's been able to throw him off yet, even though he straight-up executed Mbutu.

"If these kinds of public displays keep up," the Legate concluded grimly, "The veil is _finished_ , and we'll have to deal with our presence being revealed to the world at large during this budding 'information age.'"

((()))


	7. Chapter 7

AN: Don't you just _hate_ it when you've got a boss fight planned for your PCs, then the boss massively fails the first 3-4 rolls in the fight, resulting in them becoming the _only_ rolls the boss gets to make in the fight?

((()))

 _Once Beryl was safely under the protection of the Emperor's guard, and the handful of mages therein, I set off to check on other Persons of Interest in the Tokyo area._

 _I left a note for 'grandpa' Hino, who was staying in a hotel while the Hikawa shrine was repaired._

 _The Aino parents were on separate business trips._

 _The Tsukino family was in; I left them a note as well._

 _Makoto's apartment was untouched, I hung around in it long enough to make sure I'd be able to target it accurately with teleportation._

 _That took care, at least for the time being, of the familial entanglements of the inner Senshi. The note I left gave a brief summation of how the Senshi were being taken into hiding, why, and how to contact Natsuna if they wanted to get word to the girls or me._

 _Next up was the Outers. I had no idea where Pluto would be, or what she would be doing, but given her solo-teleportation and 'unfindable hiding place,' I wasn't worried for her safety. Uranus and Neptune I honestly_ didn't _want to deal with, they were 'hard women making hard decisions' combined with a fair degree of stupidity in the series canon, but I made sure to at least track them down. Given the semi-public nature of their professions and that I knew their 'civilian' names, finding them wasn't difficult._

 _Michiru lived in a small manor-house, which given property values in Tokyo was a huge extravagance, and it only took a few seconds sitting on the property wall in cat form to identify that there were no active magic users within, though a latent talent was present. Haruka was living in a nice, but not ostentatious, apartment, and a magical scan from outside the door gave a similar result. I made sure I'd be able to teleport back in if I thought further contact was needed, but then moved on to the_ real _focus point of the Outers._

 _Saturn._

 _Hotaru Tomoe was one of the more outstanding examples of 'Iron Woobie' in the canon, and the trauma-train just never seemed to end for her. Being able to intervene before she was used in a pawn to have an eldritch entity invade Earth would be doing both the Earth at large, and her in particular, a huge favor._

 _Finding her was a little bit more difficult, but not terribly so. There was more than one 'Tomoe' family, and none of them listed a daughter by said name in the phone book. There was, however, only one Tomoe family which owned and operated a school. Mugen Academy had its street address listed, so I simply camped the front gates until school let out. I spent the waiting time trying to find Chiba Mamoru in the phone book, but had no luck there either._

 _Once the junior high school let out, there was the expected flood of adolescents leaving the school, but it still wasn't particularly hard to locate Hotaru amongst them. She was, after all, the only one giving off two potent magical auras, not to mention the only female student wearing a long-sleeved blouse, complete with gloves. It reminded me, rather abruptly, that in the original manga, Hotaru had been injured so badly in one of her father's lab accidents, that he'd resorted to cybernetics to replace one of her arms and one of her legs._

 _Like I said, with Hotaru, the Trauma Train just_ did not stop.

 _Given the presence of the second magical aura saturating her body, it was also almost certain that she was already being possessed by Mistress Nine, which doubtless meant her father was also well-down the path of villainy, and either possessed or hybridized with a 'daimon' himself. Either way, this would considerably complicate securing her, not to mention later dealing with the fact she was already several stops further along the Trauma Train._

 _As I watched, a few of the other junior highers began picking on the girl; I moved along the school's perimeter wall to intervene, but before I could, the intensity of the tainted magical aura spiked, and her posture completely changed. In half a second she went from 'harassed and withdrawn recluse,' to 'imperious queen delivering punishment, and her left arm swept around._

 _The 'crack' of her open-handed slap was audible across the mostly-empty schoolyard, and judging by how the boy staggered back, she'd definitely hit him with the mechanical arm; the blow carried too much weight to be delivered by a normal girl that small._

 _Time to act._

((()))

Hotaru _hated_ her blackouts. Her father said they were a recurring symptom of the injuries she'd taken years ago, but they always seemed to come at the worst times, when someone was getting hurt. She usually woke up next to people who were bleeding or bruised.

Waking up flat on her back, with a cat standing on her stomach though, _that_ was new.

Hotaru spent several seconds staring at the cat, slowly beginning to realize how _huge_ it was, before taking a glance around to see who or what else was nearby, the answer to which appeared to be 'not much.' Nobody was glaring angrily at her, or nursing a fresh injury, and she was still in Mugen's schoolyard.

"Do you want to be a magical girl?"

Hotaru blinked, then turned to look at the (large!) cat again.

"Yes," The cat said, "I'm a talking, magical cat. Yes, I'm asking you if you want to be a magical girl. I can wait if you-"

Hotaru fainted.

((()))

 _Well,_ that _didn't go according to plan. Still, resting outside of the evil lair of a mad professor isn't exactly wise._

 _It took only a moment's concentration to teleport Hotaru and myself to Makoto's apartment, where I shifted forms to human, then carried her to Makoto's bed, and lay her down to rest there. I went to make some tea while I waited for her to wake up, but then realized that despite how genre-appropriate it was, I really had no idea_ how _to make tea properly._

 _I thought about making hot chocolate, but Makoto didn't keep any in her kitchen. That led to considering the atomic structure of chocolate; if I knew the exactly molecular make-up of it, I could theoretically psychic-up some from literally anything. Not exactly the sort of technical knowledge that people just keep lying around though, particularly in the nineties, before the internet developed more fully._

 _The only molecular structure I could think of that was edible for humans, was Sodium Chloride, or table salt, but that was kind of cheating, since it was a two-element compound, and while it was essential for life, it couldn't really multi-task like 'proper' organic-derived foods could. A lot of people don't like to admit it, but you_ can _survive on a diet made purely of meat, or purely fruit, or purely vegetables, for quite a while. It'll become increasingly unhealthy, but that's a problem to deal with in the scale of months and years, rather than hours and weeks._

 _While I was musing on the dietary versatility and limitations of omnivorous primates, Hotaru woke up again._

((()))

"Ah," Nephrite said as he studied the swarm of faceless constructs swarming across the presidential mansion's lawn, " _Colonials._ This simply will not do."

In a flash, he teleported down to the front doors of the presidential mansion, and a few seconds later, a hundred- meter long line of razor-sharp air slashed across grounds, bisecting the golems, as well as felling all trees in the front yard (and capping several bushes).

"I can sense your presence!" Nephrite shouted, "We can either speak here, or wherever it is you have based yourself!"

A murmur of supernatural disturbance marked a being teleporting away.

"Very well," Nephrite said with a quirked smile, "The hard way it is."

((()))

Hotaru wasn't used to waking up on a _bed_ after one of her blackouts; it was much more comfortable than the ground though. She spent a few minutes waking up 'properly,' then sat up, and studied the room she was in. It seemed like a fairly basic apartment bedroom, though she could easily tell it was laid out for someone much taller than her; there was no clear sign of how she had gotten there.

Standing up brought the familiar ache in her hip, where metal joined flesh, and the realization that someone had removed her shoes; she shivered slightly. They'd probably felt the metal in her foot.

A handful of steps brought her to the sliding door out into the main part of the apartment, which was occupied by a large cat.

"Are you a talking cat?" Hotaru asked, the question out of her mouth almost before she realized she was asking it.

"Yes," The cat said, "And you're a magical girl."

"That's..." Hotaru started to say, before realizing she wasn't sure _what_ that was.

"Both wonderful and terrible," the cat said with a sigh, "Fortunately for you, this isn't actually a Maho Shoujo series, and there _are_ competent adults with the ability to take care of most of the foes at hand. Still, some of them are already aware of your potential, so _unfortunately_ , you can't just be a bystander."

"...What do you mean?" Hotaru asked quietly, starting to fidget a little due to nerves.

"...I'll attempt an analogy," The cat said, before raising one paw, then extending his claws, "My claws are a part of me, correct?"

Hotaru nodded, and the cat retracted his claws.

"Are they still part of me?" He asked.

"Yes?" Hotaru said, confused by the question, "Why wouldn't they be?"

"It's much the same with you," he replied, "You _are_ a magical girl, just like I have claws, you simply don't know how to 'use your claws' yet. The comparison isn't perfect; my claws are attached to my paws, not my soul, and your magical powers can be used to heal and protect, as well as damage."

"That's good?" Hotaru half-said, half-asked, "But how do you know _I_ am a magical girl? I've never done magic before..."

"With skill," the cat replied, "One magical being can sense the ability in another. Of course, for one such as yourself, just a little luck is all that is needed; you've quite a bit of potential."

Hotaru squirmed a bit, uncertain what to say, and after several protracted seconds of uncomfortable silence, the cat decided to change conversational tack.

"I haven't introduced myself yet," He said gently, "On this plane, I am known as Jaeger. Would you like me to tell you about Ami, the first magical girl I worked with here in Tokyo?"

Hotaru nodded hesitantly.

((()))

"I think I've found us a good 'hiding' place," Caitlyn announced as she stepped back aboard the _Black Lagoon_ , nodding to Revy as she did so, "I think it's the sort of place you might even like."

"Oh?" Revy said tilting her head with a smile as she stared inquisitively at the other woman, "Is it a bar?"

"No," Caitlyn said, shaking her head with a smirk, "It's a school. Specifically an _all girls_ school, which is noted for turning out graduates that usually end up in the local version of SWAT, the military, or private security firms. _After_ cleaning house in international female martial arts tournaments."

"...It's a school of ass-kicking?" Revy asked.

"Just about," Caitlyn said with a shrug, "They're also very good academically, but people tend to notice 'incredibly fit ass-kicking teenage girls' more than 'high national scoring academics.' It's called 'Wild's High School.'"

"Do they do tours for prospective students?" Lynette asked.

"Yes," Caitlyn said, "How many do we want to bring?"

"Not the whole lot yet," Lynette said, "Not until we hear back from some parents about whether we'll be able to 'keep' them all. Makoto and Ami should do for now, their perspectives should cover the primary extremes. Anything else of note?"

"Sort of," Caitlyn said with another shrug, "Apparently they're trying to become co-ed, as of this year. Only one male student yet though. Doubt it'll matter much to us."

"Weird," Revy said, "I want to come with."

"Only if you can wear something modest," Lynette immediately replied.

((()))

Beryl sighed tiredly as she stepped into her apartment; it would be good to sleep in her own bed. Her apartment was not as large as it could have been for one of her position and lineage, but the location was absolutely ideal for her. Just off of the Tokyo University primary campus, and overlooking the Kyu-Iwasaki-Tei gardens, her apartment complex was expensive, even by Tokyo standards, and had the luxuries to go with it. Two swimming pools, one on the roof, one indoors, what amounted to a complete spa, a small gym, and a very well-appointed tea house and rock garden (also on the roof).

"I was wondering when you'd show up."

Beryl shrieked, and almost leapt out of her skin, scrambling back outside of the apartment before she recognized the voice.

"Himiko," She said, gasping slightly as she held a hand over her (now-thundering) heart, "Why _do_ such a thing to me?"

"You didn't _used_ to be this jumpy," Himiko Nanasawa said as she flipped on the overhead lights (revealing a rather plain young woman whose attire and demeanor screamed 'nerd!') in the apartment's living room, "What _happened_ to you?"

"Someone tried to kidnap me," Beryl said as she stalked back into the apartment, sparing a short glare for her friend and coworker as she removed her shoes, "Right out of a hospital. It was most distressing."

"Are you serious?" Himiko asked, uncertainty and confusion in her tone.

"Quite," Beryl said with a sigh, before flopping down onto a western-style love seat she kept around for just such purposes, "You would not _believe_ what the attack on the hospital was like, or what has happened since."

"Try me," Himiko challenged.

So Beryl told her.

((()))

 _By the time I had finished telling Hotaru a (slightly edited) account of the magical adventures of Mizuno Ami, her eyes were wide with wonder. Which probably meant I'd told her a slightly_ too _edited version of what had gone on in Kota Kinabalu, and at the Alert military base. I do know that everybody who died in Kota Kinabalu was restored by the Wish that Usagi cast using the Gnzuisho; I am uncertain about the soldiers at Alert. Natsuna's men who died protecting the cruise liner though, they were still dead, and I did not know what had happened to the Ginzuisho_

 _Suspicions, perhaps, but no certainties, and even if I did know where it had ended up, I had no idea how to get Usagi to use it again._

" _Hotaru," I said gently, "While it may seem amazing right now, not everything has ended so well. Some of Natsuna's policemen died trying to protect the Cruise Liner, and they are still dead. I don't know how many of them had families, but Natsuna shed more than a few tears on their behalf."_

" _If I become a Magical Girl," She asked hesitantly, "Would I be able to bring them back."_

" _No," I said, shaking my head, "Resurrection magic is_ extremely _rare; I'm still not sure how Usagi managed it with the Ginzuisho. You could probably do some healing, and those sufficiently skilled with healing magic can do much like doctors with shock paddles or similar can, resuscitating someone whose heart has stopped, but isn't too far gone to be healed. Outright raising someone who has been long dead? Unfortunately, that's not something you'd be able to do."_

" _But I'd at least be able to help stop more people from dying?" She asked, looking down at me with big, teary eyes._

" _...Yeah, you can do that," I said somewhat hesitantly, "But as a warning, unless things go_ really _bad, we're not going to let you onto a battlefield without some serious training first. We_ don't _support the whole 'child soldier' thing."_

" _I'll definitely help!" Hotaru said brightly, standing up and trying to take a commanding pose, an image somewhat ruined by her frail appearance, "Do I get to pick my magical girl name?"_

" _...You could maybe pick a nickname?" I replied, "You're the Senshi of Saturn, bu-"_

 _A malevolent presence erupted within the room, and Hotaru went rigid for a second, before her entire posture changed. Her eyes began to glow red, and my gut churned; of_ course _it would be her proper title that would trigger a more serious possession attempt._

 _Well, no time like the present to act._

" _ **A Mau**_ _," the being in Hotaru's skin said with some amusement, "_ _ **I had thought your species driven out of this system.**_ _"_

 _I started pooling Zeon for a spell._

" _ **Oh, and a mage too!**_ _" She said, "_ _ **Perhaps I'll keep you as a pet, once you've been taught your place.**_ _"_

 _Then she fired a purple lightning bolt at me. No charge-up, no gesture, simply fired it right out of her eyeballs._

 _I dodged most of it, and my Psychokinetic Armor deflected the rest._

" _ **And you even have some combat training!**_ _" She applauded me with a (mildly disconcerting smile, "_ _ **With that lustrous fur, you'll make an**_ **excellent** _**companion. I understand it is in style in this dimension for rulers to lounge with cats while they plan.**_ _"_

 _Another lightning bolt from the eyes; this one I managed to avoid completely, causing her smile to intensify._

" _ **Wonderful!**_ _" She said, "_ _ **Now if you'll just hold still while I relieve you of that pesky free will...**_ _"_

 _I did_ not _want to see what her next trick would be, so I cast my spell: Create Being._

 _What I really needed, was the ability to tear her soul out of Hotaru's body. Unfortunately, all my Path knowledge was invested in Creation, the most versatile school of magic (aside from Necromancy), and since I'd spent my characteristic points on Willpower while fighting in Kota Kinabalu, I couldn't 'suddenly learn' a bunch of magic, not even counting the learn times involved in higher-level spells. The spell to pull a soul out of a body was from the Essence path, and pretty high up there too. Since I couldn't learn it myself, at least not soon enough, I was instead going to be a cheating cheater who takes full advantage of the oft-silly but legal limits of the rules, and Create a Being that_ did _know enough Essence magic to do the job for me._

 _And as an added bonus, once the Zeon for the spell was fully accumulated, the spell only took one round-3 seconds-to cast._

" _I'm not a Mau," I informed the Chaos Entity possessing Hotaru's body, "I'm_ **American** _, and back home, we have a saying-"_

 _I discharged the spell, and an averagely-proportioned, ugly as sin male humanoid appeared directly behind me, and immediately began charging up a spell. Mistress Nine's attention was immediately fully on the construct; after all, I had just_ finished _casting a spell, which hardly meant I could have any other dangerous magics waiting to deploy on her, could I?_

" **GO BIG OR GO HOME!"**

 _Then I Rail-Gunned Makoto's TV at her._

((()))

Mamoru Chiba _had_ been having a good day; he was done with his coursework, he'd just spent some time hanging out with his friend Motoki at the Crown Arcade, and the _very_ attractive professor who headed up his research team at Tokyo U had just returned early.

His mood was derailed when a deafening explosion erupted from an apartment not twenty meters above him, and a young woman was sent flying to smash into the concrete wall on the opposite side of the urban canyon. A rains of glass scattered out across the street, and Mamoru ducked, raising his arms to shield his neck and head; fortunately, it was late enough that the largely-residential street didn't have much pedestrian traffic. 'Not much' in Tokyo still meant at least a dozen were in the path of falling glass, and some of them were too foolish to do something other than stand and watch as the glass rained down.

More immediate to Mamoru's concerns, was the falling body, and the little girl standing directly beneath it, staring up oblivious to just how deadly a human body could be when falling at terminal velocity. Sprinting forward, he desperately tried to move the child before she was crushed.

((()))

 _Well_ that _didn't quite go as planned. I teleported down with my crafted minion; for a moment I thought I'd need to do something risky to stop Mistress Nine from falling on top of one of the bystanders on the street, but one of the local young men intervened._

 _Which left Mistress Nine herself, her cybernetic arm torn off, gasping as she bled on the concrete sidewalk._

" _Possession is generally frowned upon in this reality," I informed her, "_ Particularly _of sweet little girls. Now are you going to come out of there voluntarily, or am I going to have to force the issue?"_

 _She spat at me, then tried to shoot lightning out of her eyes at me again. Instead, she flubbed the spell, and roasted her own eyeballs in their sockets._ **Not** _a pretty sight._

" _Hard way it is."_

 _My 'created being,' which was ultimately just another body answering to my will, since it had no soul of its own, nodded at my gesture, and cast Transmigrate Soul, targeting the thoroughly smashed and melted remnants of the television on the ground beside her. It took a few moments of struggle, but my puppet successfully de-souled Hotaru's rather mangled body._

 _Unfortunately, it accidentally yanked_ both _souls out._

 _And now I had a smashed, melted, possessed_ television _with two souls, in the middle of a glass-littered street, next to the mangled and apparently-comatose body of a little girl._

 _Great._

((()))

Mamoru had never seen magic in real life, though he had dreamed of it before.

None of his dreams had been like _this._

He had seen some form of energy attack, the girl had to have _some_ kind of protective magic, given that a blast that had holed the building across the street hadn't outright killed her, and she'd survived an eight-story drop afterwards without having her body pulped. An enormous cat and a hideous man had _teleported_ directly beside him, and then ripped _something_ out of the mangled girl's body. After her eyeballs had _exploded._

He was still too deafened to know just _what_ they had been talking about, but any conversation that drove a girl to blow her own eyeballs up _couldn't_ have been a happy one. Then the cat turned and tried to talk to him.

Mamoru tensed, wary of what it would do next; running occurred to him, but he doubted he was faster than a _normal_ cat, much less this enormous teleporting creature. After a second attempt to speak to him, it smacked a paw over its face, before gesturing towards him with the other.

Abruptly, Mamoru's hearing returned, and the small collection of cuts he'd gained from falling glass healed up, pushing a few small shards out of his skin as they did so.

"I _was_ asking if you were in need of medical assistance," the cat repeated, "But I guess the point is rather moot now. Can you get your sister clear of the glass? I need to check amongst the other civilians present for serious injuries before I depart."

Mamoru nodded slowly, carefully picking the girl he'd been sheltering up, before backing away from the cat.

"Dimi?" The girl in his arms said, and he glanced down to see bright, curious eyes looking up at him, "Dimi, is that you?"

((()))

 _Once I was finished dropping a few minor healing spells, I teleported out of Tokyo. It took a few jumps to get to the Seoul area, then into range for a telepathic link with Lynette. She was, unsurprisingly, unamused to hear what had happened while I was off on my own, and I suspected Caitlyn would be rather displeased as well. And that wasn't even getting into how Makoto would react when she found out I'd trashed her apartment, and there were now two souls being stored in the slagged remnants of her TV._

 _Things had_ not _gone according to plan today._

((()))

"Normally," said Palbong Lee, headmaster of Wild's High School, "It'd be somewhat more difficult to get new students in partway through a term, but given how much our esteemed founder desires to transform this more properly into a coed school, we are willing to ease things for incoming students."

"That is appreciated," Lynette replied with a smile, "If I'd known that made such a difference to you, we'd have waited so we could bring our young man with for this tour. How has the other young man been doing thus far?"

"Jae-Gu has been doing quite well for such an unexpected entrant," Lee said with a genial smile, before glancing over (and _up_ ) at Caitlyn, "Unsurprisingly, there was a period of some uproar as the female students became accustomed to the presence of a male student, and for a time, I was worried he'd be mobbed. Fortunately, several of our more senior students stepped in and ensured he wouldn't be swamped."

"Oy, Gramps," Revy called as she itched at the conservative _blouse_ she was wearing, "Were they straightening things out, or just staking their claim 'cause they were top of the heap?"

"A little of both," The headmaster said with a boisterous laugh, "I'm quite certain young Choi Dal-Dal has certainly set her sights on Jae-Gu; Moon-Young and Queen, I am less certain of."

"Queen?" Caitlyn asked curiously, "Is she a foreign student?"

"No," Lee said, shaking his head slightly, "It is simply what everyone calls her; her real name is Ingui Yoon. She's the current champion of the Wild's League, and already had a reputation as best in her age group at MMA before she joined the school."

"Is her family behind the Yoon K. industrial group?" Caitlyn asked, and the president nodded, "Their logo was on just about every other construction site down along the shoreline. There's more than one reason for the name 'Queen' then?"

"Indeed," Lee said with a nod, "Part of the reason that the Yoon family chose Wild's for their daughter, is the level of discipline we expect from our students. Though she received quite a bit of attention when she first arrived, her classmates mostly leave her be. Duties and social functions with her family also take her away for quite a bit of the year, so she has no formal affiliation with any of the martial arts clubs, though her best friend is Moon-Young, the captain of the boxing team, so she is most often found with them when she does have free time. The issue of our more popular students aside, I suppose the issue of discipline should be more directly addressed."

The headmaster stopped as they reached the entrance to the gym complex, and turned to face the party of women walking with him.

"One of the pivotal aspects of how our school maintains order," he declared, "In spite of our heavy focus on physical strength and martial skill, is an iron-clad rule: Students _do not_ fight outside of the ring. The only exception is cases of self-defense, cases which must be deemed self-defense by the _police_ in order to not result in strict disciplinary action or explusion. Is this understood?"

"Quite," Lynette said, before turning back to glance at the only two members of their party who were actually intended to be students.

Makoto and Ami were both initially silent; Ami just nodded, but Makoto had tensed up.

"I see that you have at least some reservation with this rule," The headmaster said evenly as he looked up at the teenage martial artist, "I would prefer to hear it now, than in a month when a problem has been caused."

"Bullies," Makoto said after a few seconds of thought, "I was sent back and forth around the Tokyo school system a number of times because I can't _stand_ bullies. Every time I saw someone getting picked on, I'd step in. Most boys don't like getting told off by girls, so they'd start a fight, and I'd beat them up. I've heard a lot of teachers tell me not to fight, but none of them backed up their promises to make sure I wouldn't _need_ to."

"I quite understand," Lee said with a nod, "I am sure it would come to no surprise to you, that one of my short stature dealt with such issues quite a bit while I was in school, many years ago."

He paused for a moment, and took a deep breath, his entire presence seeming to _inflate_ before them, the short, friendly administrator turning into an imposing man as his eyes opened wide and locked Makoto in a sharp glare.

"I became the lightweight boxing champion of Korea," He continued forcefully, "A path which I was set upon by my own desire to put a stop to such nonsense. _All_ of our teachers have a high degree of martial prowess of their own; it is one of hiring requirements. If you see a problem, inform a teacher, and we _will_ stop it, not with words, or with threats of suspension, but with _physical force_. If necessary, I will punch them in their punk-ass face _myself._ "

He leaned forward, his presence such that Makoto found herself leaning back, in spite of being most of a foot taller than him.

"Lack of discipline is _not_ tolerated in Wild's High School."

He exhaled, relaxed, and leaned back into his former posture, smile reappearing as he did so.

"Now, who would like to see the Gym?"

((()))

"...Are you sure nobody spiked your drinks while you were in Malaysia?" Himiko asked, looking on Beryl in concern, "Because I have _never_ heard a story like this from you before."

Beryl sighed, leaned over to fish the remote for her television off of the coffee table in front of her, then began to channel surf the news. It took some time (Satellite TV offered a _lot_ of channels in Tokyo), but eventually she found a report covering the attacks in Kota Kinabalu.

"See?" She said, "The hospital, then the cruise ship. Looks like the American military still has some of their medics involved in treating the wounded."

"...I'm glad to see this," Himiko said hesitantly, "It adds up with your story, but I'm still not seeing evidence of 'magic.' Are you _sure_ somebody didn't drug you? You and I both know some anesthetics can cause hallucinations."

"Fine then," Beryl said, rolling her eyes, "Go ask one of the guards at the door, the one _not_ in an army uniform, to show you a bit of magic."

Himiko got up and walked to the apartment door, already rolling her eyes. Beryl unmuted the TV, and channel-surfed around for a little bit, before finally landing on a cooking show to watch for a little while. _That_ at least, was something that should be completely non-stressful. It's not like Beryl ever really cooked for herself anyways; she kept simple snacks in her kitchen, but with her schedule, and on her salary, it was much easier to either pick up a meal from one of the vendors on campus to serve the students, or go to a nice restaurant when she wanted something of quality.

Ten minutes later, Himiko returned, looking somewhat pale-faced.

"Okay," she said faintly, "So magic is real."

"What did he do to show you?" Beryl asked.

"He levitated me," She said faintly, "Then temporarily turned my arm into iron. People like this were trying to _kill_ you?"

"Kidnap me, I think," Beryl said with some resignation, "It seems some junior higher from Juuban and I were on the site of a very unpleasant magical ritual, and somebody wants us so they can try to figure out what happened. They almost took both of- _dammit._ "

The cooking program had been interrupted by a sudden newscast, reporting an apartment exploding in Juuban.

((()))

"So," Makoto said, "It's a pretty nice school, I really like all the martial arts, and Ami seemed okay with the academic program. What do all of you think?"

"Not enough _boys_ ," Minako immediately grumbled, " _One_ boy, who must already have a girlfriend if he's been there for a couple months, surrounded by pretty girls."

"Lynette-sensei wants Jaeger to attend to," Ami said quietly.

"Your magical talking cat does _not_ count," Minako said, rolling her eyes, "Even if he _does_ have nice abs. Caitlyn's already laid claim on him anyways, so he's probably too old for any of us."

"Outside boys are supposed to show up for the tournament they're just starting," Makoto said, a hint of excitement creeping into her voice, "We're too late to join it, but I bet you can find some handsome guys there."

"... _Maybe_ ," Minako said, "Do they have a volleyball team?"

"...I don't know?" Makoto half-admitted, half-asked.

"Yes," Ami said with a small smile, "They have teams for most sports, but they don't get much attention compared to the martial arts clubs and teams."

"...I _guess_ that's okay then," Minako said reluctantly, "I'd rather go back to Japan, but I'm more interested in not getting kidnapped. Better an egg in the hand than in the bush."

Most of the girls gave Minako an odd look.

"What do you think, Rei?" Makoto asked, turning to the second-tallest girl in their group.

"It doesn't matter much to me," Rei said with a shrug, "The school I attend in Tokyo is good academically, but I have no real attachment to anyone there. So long as I can remain in contact with my grandfather, I have no complaint."

"Usagi?" Makoto asked.

The second blonde in the group was uncharacteristically quiet, and took long enough in responding that Makoto began to feel uncomfortable.

"Only if we all go together," Usagi eventually said, so quiet she was almost murmuring.

"Well, that makes all five of us then!" Makoto said with a smile.

((()))

" _...You want me to go to high school," I said, pawing my forehead and staring at the smiling gaggle of girls, and Lynette standing amongst them, desperately fighting a smirk._

" _Yes," Lynette replied, allowing the smirk to emerge as she spoke, "Wild's High School is in the process of changing from a girls-only school to co-ed, and they are rather aggressively attempting to recruit male students. Aggressively enough that they'd be willing to expedite the schoolwork for_ all _of 'our group' to join, so long as at least one of them is male."_

" _You're looking to have one guy and five girls join," I replied with a raised eyebrow, "And they're willing to expedite even with a five to one ratio?"_

" _Yeah," Revy said as she smirked over at Caitlyn, "There's_ one _guy in the whole school right now. Be ready to receive a_ lot _of female attention."_

" _Please don't pick fights," I said a bit tiredly, "We can't afford the attention the collateral damage would bring. Lyn, I'll need to talk to you about some medical stuff later; when do you need an answer on this 'going to high school' thing?"_

" _Tonight," Caitlyn said bluntly, "You're not thinking like someone in hiding anymore. The_ Black Lagoon _won't be that hard for people to associate with us, and I don't think we_ could _pay Dutch enough to not tell them where we landed."_

" _And Revy knowing where in Korea we're staying?" I asked._

" _I've made a deal with wolf-girl," Revy said, "I'll keep quiet."_

 _I glanced over at Caitlyn, who nodded._

" _I trust Caitlyn's judgement on things like this," I said, giving Revy The Eye as I spoke, "But remember, if you renege on your deal with her,_ I _will be coming with her for punitive measures. Do you remember what_ really _happened in Kota Kinabalu during the eclipse?"_

" _Hell yes I do," Revy said, "Tank-Cat and everything."_

 _I nodded, then rolled over onto my back and shifted into human form._ High School. _I'd actually home-schooled through high school in my original timeline, something I was grateful to my parents for. I'd lived in the Middle East at the time, so 'public schools' weren't an option, and I'd attended one of the private schools in the area for grade school, so I knew many of them were pretty good, but there was a lot more to it than that. Primarily,_ time. _Until I started taking a language class again in eleventh grade, I could generally get all of my schoolwork done in 3-4 hours, a third of that taken up entirely by math, and I was doing just fine compared to students from top private schools in the area._

 _By 'top private schools' I mean 'we send our students to international athletic competitions, and Ivy-league schools take notice when applicants are from our schools. I covered a similar amount of material, and at a similar level of quality, in about half the time that my friends' school days took them, not even counting how much time they spent on homework. Part of that, of course, was because I've been a voracious reader since I was about ten years old, my top reading speed clocked at over a thousand words per minute (though I rarely do more than half of that when I'm going for full comprehension), and my mother looked for_ good _reading material for us. I didn't consider reading 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' 'A Tree Grows In Brooklyn,' or 'The Giver' to be onerous, though the same couldn't be said about 'Moby Dick' or 'The Scarlet Letter.'_

 _'The Crucible' was kind of trippy._

 _All of that aside, I was grateful not just for the huge amount of time I had to spare, but also for being able to avoid the social hellhole of high school amongst kids from upper-middle and flat-out upper-class families. Some of the richer kids at the schools my friends went to had their own cars. That might not seem that strange to some people, until you realize the driving age in the country I lived was eighteen, so they not only had their own car, but also their own_ Driver _to get them around in it. The cars weren't cost-efficient used cars like a fair number of American teenagers get when they're sixteen or seventeen, they were usually new, 'status symbol' cars._

 _Brand name clothes, 'wearing your backpack like a girl,' party culture gone seriously bad (one guy I knew got knifed at a party crashed by a rival social group), girls 'scorekeeping' the number of nationalities they'd slept with, being a Nerd, I had been able to skip_ all _of that crap. I had a robust social life through my church's youth group (notable for the youth pastor treating us like_ Adults _who are_ Young, _rather than 'large children,' IE with RESPECT), and did some schoolwork with other homeschoolers._

 _Of course, posing as a high schooler_ now _would be a world of different in some ways. In others it won't; people tend to take on the social behaviors of those they spend time with, and when you immerse yourself in a culture, you tend to start caring about the things it emphasizes. One can always choose to completely isolate themselves of course, but that both would be a horrible waste of time, and incredibly difficult/rude to do as one of two male students at a recently-coed school._

 _Really, what made me hesitant, was the fear that I'd get emotionally invested in some of the students, and then get hurt._

 _Not a valid excuse, in the long run._

" _I'll do it," I said, and Minako and Usagi started cheering._

((()))


	8. Chapter 8

AN: For those wondering, Borneo is the island Kota Kinabalu is on, so the 'Borneo event' is Usagi's memory-affecting spellbomb.

((()))

"Alright girls," Lynette said as she studied the five Japanese schoolgirls standing in front of her, "Now where are you from?"

"Sussex," Minako replied immediately, the (concealed) spell upon her person allowing her to speak in near flawless Korean, the blonde managing to inflict a slight British accent upon her words.

"Amsterdam," Makoto said, "And I miss all the pastries."

"Japan!" Usagi said with a huge smile, "Nerima Ward in Tokyo!"

"East Timor," Rei said quietly, "Please do not accuse me of being Indonesian."

"Dubai," Ami said with a small smile, "in the United Arab Emirates."

"Right," Lyn said as she studied the modified features of the five girls, "We'll take each of you to visit your 'old home' once we've got a bit more time. Jaeger will probably handle that one each per afternoon after school, though I will if needed. We've checked, and there aren't any nationals from any of those countries but Japan at the school, so there shouldn't be anyone able to spot any holes in your stories. Just remember that before this, you all spent one year in Tokyo together. Keep your dates correct."

((()))

The Pentagon was a large building, and that space served many purposes. For the Minutemen, it also served the purpose of keeping a specific meeting room 'lost in the clutter,' and available for joint use when necessary.

"And with that," The Chief of Naval Operations declared, pinning three stars to the other man's uniform, "You're no longer just a member of a 'civlian militia.' Welcome to the service, Paul."

"Good to be on board," 'Paul Revere,' said as he saluted the other man, than seated himself at the table the rest of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were already waiting at, "Can't say I wouldn't prefer it be under other circumstances, but needs must."

"Well then," The Chairman said, "Let's start with the current strength of the Minutemen, before we move on to the issues we're looking to deal with."

"There were roughly fifteen thousand active members of the Minutemen spread throughout the Union," Revere said, snapping his fingers to conjure an illusionary map of the USA, on which several red stars glowed, "These are our major bases, all heavily fortified via both mundane and supernatural means. After the Borneo event, we're down to barely two thousand actives, though our Telepaths are working on unlocking the memories of those who lost them. We estimate recovering to full strength will take three to six months. We can effectively field around a thousand men now, and should be adding in at least five hundred a week starting in a fortnight. Two of ours were already in the Secret Service, and I've already got a list of three score volunteers, about half of which I'd say are likely to pass vetting, to reinforce security in Washington."

"How many paranaturals are already in conventional military service?" The Vice-chairman asked.

"About fifty scattered through the various special forces teams," Revere said, "One man on Delta Force, and a couple hundred in more conventional roles. Ten of the men in the Rangers and Force Recon haven't made contact since the Borneo event, and about ninety percent of those in conventional roles, likewise. Simply ordering them to report for a meeting where we can send one of our Telepaths should get them their memories back in a few hours. I'll note we do have prepared training plans and doctrines for how to rapidly harden conventional military units against magical assault, in part by embedding Minutemen into units as Warrant Officers. Some have already trained for the role."

"How many?" The Commandant of the Marine Corps asked.

"Only a few score," Revere said with a slight grimace, "Not enough to work through the entire military anytime soon, but enough to handle the ballistic missile subs, key air defense assets, and start working through the crews of our Carriers. Just shuffling around personnel in the special forces units should secure those, due to Minutemen already amongst their ranks, and for the rest, we'll just have to wait."

"Is hiring outside experts to speed up doctrine and training rates feasible?" The Commandant pressed.

"Not right now," Revere said, shaking his head, "If not for the Borneo event, one of my lieutenants could probably give you the names of a few score private citizens and foreign professionals that we could trust, but as things are, getting in contact with, or even knowing if any of them remember the skills we need, it's just not feasible. We'll probably still see a handful of private citizens showing up to volunteer, but that won't make much difference on the scale we need."

"In short," the Chairman said, "We have enough to cover our essential bases, but little more. Now, all of us here have seen the reports from around the world, but you should be able to tell us what all these messes actually mean. What the hell is going on out there?"

"We're not sure whether this 'Black Moon Clan' is behind the Borneo event or not," Revere said with another grimace, "But at the least, they're competent opportunists. They've hit every continent except Antarctica, and whatever it is they're trying to accomplish with their attacks, most haven't been able to stop them. They're only hitting magical sites, but they're hitting at least four of them a day, possibly as many as twelve. We soundly repulsed them, though we took some losses in the process, and from what they've said, the Praetorians did likewise, though they'd never admit to anything else if they hadn't. The Order of Merlin bugged out rather than fight, which-"

"Excuse me," The Chief of Staff of the Army said, "But we're not familiar with those organizations. I assume they're the Romans and the Brits?"

"Yes sir," Revere said, shaking his head briefly, "Sorry about that. The Brits retreated, which given they're more an alliance of near-hermits than an actual structured organization, isn't surprising. They don't keep anything worth protecting in their meeting hall anyways. None of the other European magical societies have really had much teeth since '45, though nobody picks fights with the Scandinavians. In the one attack to hit Norway, the Skalds dropped an avalanche on the golem-swarm the Black Moon makes use of.

"If you're not familiar with the concept of a Golem, basically think of a magical robot. Usually too expensive to make in any number, the Black Moon Clan has deployed thousands of them over the last few days, and they comprise almost the entirety of their known forces. The rest would be the single mage, usually female, that accompanies each attack.

"Africa, as it pretty much always has been, is too much of a mess to have much intelligence out of. There's definitely been attacks there, and I'd tentatively say there's some actual truth to the rumors in mundane media about someone killing Mobutu and declaring themselves 'Wizard-King' of Congo, but that's not really something I think we need to worry about anytime soon. Native African practitioners generally stayed out of tribal politics, more loyal to their own associations than their tribes, and that hasn't changed much through the Colonial and Modern eras.

"South America's practitioners are a mixed bag, some following the old-school native traditions, some picking up the more utilitarian European styles; neither have fared well against the Black Moon attacks, as their local magical politics are so fractious that there aren't any real concentrations of power. About the only good thing to come out of that is a lot of the drug trade was hit hard in the attacks, destroying about half of the current network we know about, which probably means about a quarter of what there actually is.

"Australia, we don't even know if it's been hit. None of the major cities have any serious concentrations of mages, and their enclaves are so far in the outback, and so damn well hidden, that we'd have to send at least a Company's worth of detection-trained practitioners, which would seriously piss the aussies off.

"Asia… Asia is a mess. Most of the Russian magical community went into deep hiding during Stalin's regime, and what few converted to his cause died off. Either being killed when they found hidden magical settlements in the wild, or killed by Stalin for failing to do so. They keep diplomatic channels open with us, but would react even worse than the aussies if someone tried to locate their hidden settlements. 'Keep it secret, keep it safe' is a watchword over there.

"The Japanese and Chinese magical communities killed a lot of each other off during the Japanese occupation of China prior to World War Two, there were more Chinese practitioners, but the Japanese had more support from conventional forces. Hong Kong and Taiwan were both hit by the Black Moon clan, which really leads to possibly the largest problem created by all of this."

Revere paused, and took a deep breath before continuing.

"Both of those cities are very high population density, and the fighting spilled out onto the streets. Hundreds of civilians died, and tens of thousands directly witnessed a supernatural battle being fought, in each city. In Taiwan and Hong Kong, the 'veil of secrecy' has been broken, and with modern mass-media, the attacks continuing, and more than eighty percent of the magical community having lost their memory of all things supernatural, the cat's coming out of the bag. Ironically enough, the spell that made most forget about magic, is looking to be what will ultimately reveal it all to the world."

((()))

"What, you scared of a high school?" Caitlyn asked with a smirk, glancing over at the cat sitting in the tree beside her.

"A little bit," Jaeger replied as he stared out of the tree's foliage, towards Wild's High School, "Lynette's cover story for me is excellent, as usual, but it's sort of bait for bullies. Unless someone comes to school packing a tactical nuke, I doubt they'd actually be able to do anything to me, but it's still a whole lot of hassle I don't need."

"Boss," Caitlyn said, rolling her eyes, "You're going to be one of two boys in the entire school, and the other is a freshman, while you'll be a senior. You aren't going to have problems with being bully-bait, you're going to have problems with being estrogen-bait. Especially once some of them actually get to know you."

"...Well," Jaeger said, "That won't be so bad, I guess. I've dealt with interested girls before."

"Pushy interested girls?" Caitlyn asked.

"You," Jaeger replied flatly.

Caitlyn laughed so hard she nearly fell out of the tree before she managed to respond.

"I'm not pushy," she eventually said, "I'm persistent. If at least one of those girls doesn't try to grab you by the shoulders and kiss you, with no invitation, I'd be shocked."

"...Thanks for the warning?" Jaeger half-said, half-asked, "I suppose I should be glad I'm still decent in a grapple."

"Come on then," Caitlyn said, sweeping the cat up into her arms, before hopping down out of the tree, "Let's go watch this tournament of theirs."

((()))

"What a thug," Makoto growled as they watched a tanned boy with white hair pound a judo practitioner rather ruthlessly into the floor.

"Ugh," Minako said, "Well I'm glad he's not a student."

"Why aren't they stopping him?" Usagi asked, shivering in her seat.

"It is a martial arts tournament," Makoto said, "She knew she was risking that when she entered the ring. Until she taps out or-okay, she's tapped out now-" Makoto winced as several more blows rained down before the boy stopped and the referee nearly disqualified the boy for it."

In the second ring, a pretty green-haired Wushu user began a highly acrobatic match with a shorter brunette Tae Kwon Do user. It occupied the five disguised Japanese schoolgirls' attention, until the next contestant for the first ring came out.

"Dibs!" Minako half-shouted as a tall, shirtless boxer wearing a knit hat walked out into the ring.

He had very well defined musculature

"That's Lee Mi Nam," Makoto said after a quick glance over at the electronic scoreboard, "He's a nationally-ranked boxer for his age group… I want to fight him."

Rei rolled her eyes but said nothing; Usagi started to day dream, and Ami realized that her odds of getting a date while hanging out with the two more extroverted girls were probably around nil.

Then the 'fight' started, and Minako groaned as the thug who'd won the prior match began landing blow after blow on the taller boxer.

"I thought you said he was a good boxer?" Minako complained, glancing over at Makoto.

"He is," the taller Senshi said, "He's holding back, I can see it in his moves. I'm not sure why he's letting that thug hit him, but-"

Makoto cut off, and all five of the girls strained their ears and tried to pick up what was being said by the two boys in the ring, but the crowd noise was too loud, and they didn't exactly have the closest seats in the first place. Perhaps half a minute of chatter passed between the two fighters, then Mi Nam moved.

Moments later, the tanned thug was unconscious on the edge of the ring.

"I'm going to go find a date!" Minako declared, jumping out of her seat and running down to lay an ambush in the boys locker room.

"Too soon!" Makoto said with a smile, "He's not done fighting yet. I'll arrange a da- I mean a spar with him once he's done..."

"Where was Minako off to?" Caitlyn asked as she walked up, looking back over her shoulder at the entrance the blonde had rushed out of.

"Trying to arrange her first date in Korea," Rei said with a hint of sarcasm as she turned to look at the older woman, and found, to some surprise, that there was a young man who appeared to be a teenager of mixed asian/islander ethnicity walking beside Caitlyn.

He could have passed for a Filipino, but he was about six inches too tall for that.

"Jaeger?" Ami asked quietly as Caitlyn took Minako's former seat, and the boy sat next to her.

"Yeah," He said, offering her an awkward smile, "Hope the shape isn't too confusing. How's the tournament been so far?"

"You should ask Makoto," Ami said with a faint shrug, "She understands what is happening much better than I."

The older boy leveled a thoughtful gaze at her for several long moments, before turning his attention back to the rings below, where Jae-Gu Song was walking out to face Lee Mi Nam.

"I could," Jaeger said, "If I wanted a technical evaluation. I'd like your impression of it though, skilled observer or not."

Ami looked over at Jaeger, not entirely sure what was motivating his question, but ultimately seeing no reason not to answer.

"It's… different," she started hesitantly, turning her eyes back down to the ring as she spoke, "Exciting, and impressive to see how skilled some of them are, but also frightening. Some of them get hit very hard."

"Have you noticed how they take the hits?" Jaeger asked watching as the Wushu student, Go Seul, soundly defeated her opponent, and intimidated the rest of the hopefuls in her bracket into dropping out.

"...Very well, I think," Ami said after a moment's thought, "They all seem to ignore physical pain. Words seem to affect them more than bruises or bleeding. Is that normal for martial artists?"

"Amongst those who take their pursuit of the art seriously," Jaeger replied, "Physical pain is, ultimately, your body informing you something is wrong. We shy away from it instinctively as a means of self-protection, but training, both physical and psychological, can change the way a person reacts to pain. We develop a higher 'pain threshold,' or even just learn to ignore it altogether. Neither is an easy or fun thing to learn, but can be very valuable in adverse circumstances. Part of why most skilled martial artists tend to do well in other parts of life, is because they've learned that unpleasant experiences are to be overcome, rather than avoided, if the objective is worth it. Not something many young adults learn in this day and age in modern cultures."

Ami looked at Jaeger oddly for a moment, but said nothing. The unusual goings-on in ring below soon distracted both of them anyways; Lee Mi Nam withdrew from the fight with Jae-Gu Song, in spite of very clearly outclassing him. Ami had no idea why he'd done such a thing, but once the next fighter, a shorter redhead, entered the ring, the why became entirely clear to Jaeger.

"This is something of a grudge match," Jaeger said as he studied the fight intensely, eyes focusing in with borderline-supernatural acuity.

"How do you know?" Ami asked quietly, voice so soft natural hearing would scarcely have been able to pick her voice up.

"How hard they're going at each other, and body language," Jaeger said, "They aren't fighting like they're trying to win a contest, the redhead is fighting like he's trying to dominate Jae-Gu, and Jae-Gu is fighting like he's got something to prove."

A loud 'crack' cut through the air, and the audience briefly quieted.

"...and that blow was both deliberate and illegal," Jaeger concluded with a wince, eyes widening slightly in surprise, "It's not doing much for my opinion of the refs, that they didn't disqualify him for that."

"Why are elbows illegal?" Ami asked.

"Because it's an unpadded blow," Jaeger said, "And it hits with most of the force of a fist. It's like the difference between banging your knee into the padded armrest of a couch, and banging it into the corner of a table. Higher-level competitions allow it, but rookies come to fights like this."

The fight began again, the two combatants, both quite clearly novices with just enough training to have a decent idea what they were doing, if not necessarily do it well, trying to beat the snot out of each other. The redhead had gained something of an advantage over Jae-Gu, who apparently had been slowed down by the elbow blow (not to mention blood seeping down from his forehead to cover a good third of his face). Jae-Gu, however, would not go down, and the redhead began heaping abuse on his opponent, shouting loud enough to be heard even over the crowd, which quieted a bit in sheer shock at the things he was saying.

"And now," Jaeger said grimly, "He shows his true colors."

"'Slave?'" Ami said, more than a little horror in her voice, "How can he call someone such things?"

"I know it's lonely," Jaeger said with a sigh, "But he's just more openly showing the attitude a lot of people subscribe to in life, and particularly in high school. 'I know how important I am, by how much I put you down.' Ask the other girls if you don't believe me-"

A thundering right cross knocked the redhead out cold.

"I think I need to go talk with some of my underclassmen."

Ami watched for a moment as Jaeger stood and left, then turned to look over at the other girls.

"There's a reason I got into so many fights," Makoto said grimly.

"It's usually less physically violent for girls," Caitlyn said quietly, "But I saw that sort of thing all the time in high school."

"It was less tolerated at the Catholic school I attended," Rei said quietly, "But it was certainly present. There is a reason I have no friends in that institution."

The fourth said nothing, and after a few moments, Ami poked Usagi in the shoulder, and the blonde finally looked away from the arena below.

"That was so sad," Usagi said as she turned to look at the others, "But also so manly! I don't know how to react!"

((()))

I caught the redhead as he was backing out of one of the locker rooms, trying to bluster past his obvious fear; I caught a glimpse of a furious Jae-Gu staring him down, and waited beore the kid closed the door before grabbing him. Specifically, grabbing him by the collar, and hoisting him off his feet.

"Nice to see the freshman getting some self-respect back," I said as I idly ignored the redhead's thrashing attempts to break free of my grip, "He handled your bullshit pretty well, all said and done."

"What the hell-" he snarled, but I cut him off by shaking him up and down a little, then spinning him around to face me.

I hadn't made this body as tall as I had originally been, but it was still tall enough to intimidate the hell out of him, if the fact I was holding him up with a single hand hadn't already been.

"Jae-Gu back there is the first male student at Wilds'," I informed him flatly, "I'm the second, and I'm a senior, not a freshman. I'm still recovering from an injury-" I paused a moment to hoist him up until his eyes were even with mine, "So my strength isn't quite what it used to be, but I still think it's more than enough to teach a foolish young man like you a thing or two. Two lessons:

"First, if you try to pull crap like this around here again, I'll hit you where it really hurts. I'll pass video and audio of the crap you get up to to your parents, to the police, and to the media. You think you're hot shit because you can push around someone who life has already taken a shit on? Wait until you see what happens when society at large decides your a thug, or possibly a 'deserving target.'

"Second, it may give you a thrill, make you feel like a 'big man' when you put down someone else, but it's not doing you any favors-"

He landed a punch on my nose; I glared at him for a moment before continuing.

"-It's just messing your head up. Abusing power is like a drug, it's addicting, it feeds into the desire for itself, and it ultimately shits your life up. Do you know anyone who you'd trust to have your back if, say, Lee Mi Nam decided to beat the shit out of you? Do you know anyone who, if you became a 'loser,' would actually still spend time with you? Basing your self-worth on how you can piss on other people might be degrading to them, but it's even more degrading to you, because you know what it says about you?"

He replied with another blow, this time trying to kick me in the nuts; he hit the thigh instead, but I gave him a good shake to dissuade him from trying again.

"It says that you need them in order to feel like you're worth anything. And you know what? I can tell you that Jae-Gu Song? He needs you about as much as a dog needs fleas, and you matter about as much to him."

I dropped him.

"Now get lost, and try to un-screw your life."

He ran; I turned and entered the locker room. It was time to meet my sole underclassman.

((()))

The Moon is not generally a place where people should be living; it's either brutally cold or lethally hot, depending on if you're on the day or night side, the gravity is unhealthily low, and most of all, there's no atmosphere. Generally, it's best to avoid such environments unless one is capable of cheating death outrageously.

Nephrite was thoroughly enjoying his stroll on the surface of the moon; while he no longer had the Metallia-fueled irrational hatred of the Silver Millenium that he once had, as a noble, he still appreciated seeing that his historic rivals had most certainly lost the 'game of houses.' He'd have preferred their downfall be less brutally horrific, of course, but that was thousands of years past, and he had little emotional energy left for focusing on such things.

After all, Metallia had been just as hard on the Golden Kingdom.

Finding the Black Moon Clan's base of operations hadn't been particularly hard; there wasn't much in the way of magical activity on the Moon, and the colonials reeked of Darkness magic, much like Metallia, though they didn't share that particular parasite's obsession with Destruction magic. They did share Metallia's lax understanding of that arcane concept known as 'Security' however, and Nephrite was able to enter their base by the simple expedient of walking through the magical field that held into an atmosphere, then opening one of the rather elaborately-engraved doors, and stepping into the carved-stone structure.

"Not bad," Nephrite mused as he studied the décor, a plush gray carpet covering the floor of a double-wide hallway, the walls etched with modern Japanese katakana, "Could use some color though."

Wandering about the base eventually lead to him making contact with one of its residents, though he did have a 'false start' when he ran into one of their golems, which had apparently been assigned to cleaning detail. Given that it didn't react to his presence, Nephrite decided to take the opportunity to study the thing, examining the spell matrices and materials which comprised its construction. In the end , there was nothing particularly impressive about their capabilities, though the manner of their creation was somewhat surprising. Rather than being actual enchanted objects, they were crafted of conjured materials, and maintained via a surprisingly small amount of magical energy.

"Marvelously efficient," Nephrite remarked as an actual human being approached him, "For Colonials."

"Who are you?" demanded a dark-haired, pale-skinned young man with a black crescent tattooed upside down onto his forehead, "And how did you get in here?"

"I am an emissary of the Golden Kingdom," Nephrite said with a smile as he turned to face the other man, "I arrived via walking, and I wish to speak with your leader."

"...Walking," the other man said with some amusement, "You are aware, perhaps, that we are currently on the moon?"

"That certainly would appear to be the case," Nephrite said with a faint smile, "I do hope I haven't come such a long way to be disappointed. I did try to send a message ahead, but none of the current delivery services reach this far into orbit."

"I see," the other man said, "Well, I suppose I may as well take you to speak with my brother. After all, if you were able to arrive without our knowledge, we can hardly expect to keep you from doing so again, can we?"

"Entirely possible," Nephrite replied.

((()))

When Jaeger stepped into the locker room to meet his underclassman, he found a very strange sight. Jae-Gu had apparently fallen asleep on the bare floor, and two of the Wilds' female students had fallen asleep on either side of them. Not only that, but he was apparently the second person to find them like that, a tall blonde girl, accompanied by two young children, was staring down at the odd site, and with ill-concealed displeasure.

"Hello," Jaeger said, "I'm J. Gates, and I'm just transferring in. I was hoping to meet the only other male student here, but it looks like he's out cold. Who might you be?"

The blonde turned to look at him, her expression sliding into an indifferent mask, she didn't speak immediately, and the the children with her took the opportunity to speak on her behalf.

"She's Queen!" The girl said, "She's the best!"

"Ah," Jaeger replied with a nod, "Ingui Yoon; how do you prefer to be addressed?"

"Queen is appropriate from one such as you," She replied, her voice not disdainful, but certainly not implying in any way that she held him in any particular regard either.

"Right then," Jaeger said with a nod, "Nice to meet you, Queen; who are you two?"

He directed the last at the pair of children with Queen.

"I'm Hyung!" The boy said.

"I'm Som!" The girl said.

Jaeger studied the two for a long moment before speaking.

"Song's younger siblings?" He half-stated, half-guessed.

The twins nodded synchronously.

"You must be a friend of the family then," Jaeger said, turning his attention back to Ingui, "Where are the rest of the family?"

It was subtle, but Queen's facial expression abruptly became much more hostile; Jaeger reacted swiftly.

"I guess they're all heavily involved with family business?" Jaeger asked, "I know how that can be, I guess. Are you fighting today?"

Queen shook her head slowly.

"I've heard you're the best in your age group," Jaeger said with a nod of respect, "I know a few girls who will be interested in testing that out at some point. Me too, at some point, of course, but that'll have to wait until I've finished recovering."

Queen tilted her head slightly, studying Jaeger's body up and down for a moment before returning her gaze to meet his.

"You do not look like you've been injured recently," She said.

"Head injury," Jaeger said with a depreciating smile, "Got clipped by a bullet; no permanent damage, but it had me down for a while."

Ever so slightly, Queen's expression shifted again, and she opened her mouth slightly, before glancing down at the children still holding her hands.

"Yeah, we can talk about it later," Jaeger said with a faint smile, "If you spend much time around the kid," he nodded towards the sleeping Song on the floor, "You'll be seeing me around. Anyways, I should get going, the rest of my group is probably looking for me."

So saying, he turned and left.

((()))

"I can't say I've ever heard of a 'Golden Kingdom,'" 'Prince' Demande, the apparent leader of the Black Moon Clan said, "And see little reason why I should treat you as a foreign dignitary, rather than a particularly prolific vagabond."

"You would do well to study your history then," Nephrite said with a faint smile, one that came just short of mocking, "The Golden Kingdom was so-named because it was the first to rule a unified Earth, though this is ancient history to most, it is still important history. We were, after all the ones to found the colonies that you are descended from."

Nephrite stood in a grand throne room, one which gave a strong impression of vast emptiness, due to being occupied by scarcely more than a half-dozen individuals. Saphir, the young man who had found Nephrite, stood between Demande and Nephrite; an un-named individual in a hooded robe stood beside the throne in the traditional position of an advisor, and three women stood against one of the chamber's walls.

All of them were mages, and none of them of inconsequential power, though only Demande could potentially rival Nephrite himself, and none of them were a patch on Beryl. All of them reeked of Darkness magic, though none more than the advisor, and none less than Saphir.

"...You speak of the Earth Kingdom," Saphir said thoughtfully, "The ancient rival of the Silver Millenium?"

"...The Earth Kingdom?" Nephrite said in genuine surprise, and no small amount of disgust, "That's what they call it in your history books? The Earth Kingdom? I might as well call you lot the 'Moon and Planets Queendom!' Do your historians have no respect?!"

"I suspect it is more a matter of lacking information," Saphir said hastily, "Very little survives from a kingdom eleven thousand years gone."

"Eleven thousand years," Nephrite said sharply, "So you are time travelers. It appears more than your historians are lacking; the Silver Millenium I knew would never have permitted such incompetence."

"You think you have the right to judge us?" Demande replied, his voice just as sharp, "You know nothing of our reasons for coming to the past, and nothing of what we intend to accomplish when we return-"

"There will BE no return!" Nephrite shouted, uncharacteristic anger coloring his face, "You cannot change the past without undoing the future you come from! Did they teach nothing of temporal mechanics to mages in your time?"

"That is no affair of yours," Demande said coldly, "We are here, and we have our purpose. What is your purpose here?"

"To more direct business then," Nephrite said, his countenance calming once more, "Which is quite simple. You will cease your attacks upon Earth, or I shall put an end to them for you. Earth is under the protection of the Golden Kingdom, even if we have not yet reasserted full control."

Demande opened his mouth, fire in his eyes, but then hesitated, glancing over his shoulder at his advisor.

"Wiseman?" He called, and the figure stepped forward, studying Nephrite carefully.

"He is skilled," Wiseman said, his voice a quiet rasp, "Tell me, emissary of the 'Golden Kingdom,' what do you know of Metallia?"

"She became more trouble than she was worth," Nephrite said smoothly, "So she was disposed of. Permanently."

A rasping, croaking laughter emerged from Wiseman's hood, and he retreated back behind the throne.

"He bluffs, my prince," Wiseman said, "Only the ignorant or foolish would claim to have slain Metallia."

Demande opened his mouth to speak again, but then hesitated one moment more.

Nephrite was smiling. It was a smile of satisfaction, it was a smile of amusement, but more than anything else, it was a smile of confidence. Demande mentally shook himself, assured in the counsel of Wiseman, and pressed on.

"Your demands are rejected," Demande said flatly, "I will not be cowed by a single man, competent though he may be. You would do well not to attempt interference in our interests, or you will suffer our wrath."

"Ah," Nephrite said whimsically, stepping back and allowing his cape to furl around him, taking the right edge in hand as he spoke, "The voice of ignorance. Once, child, I was a healer; now I am a king, but between the two, I was a General, and I learned the ways of war."

His smile turned predatory.

"And henceforth child," Nephrite continued, sweeping his cape back, "I shall educate you in the ways of war. Pay attention, for few survive making the same mistake twice."

So saying, he swept his cape forward around himself, and disappeared from the face of the Moon.

((()))

"So what is this child's name?" The officer asked patiently.

"I'm not sure," Mamoru said, mostly succeeding in holding on to his patience, "'Nelly' is all I've been able to get out of her."

"Nelly is Dimi's Aunt!" the girl said 'helpfully,' and Mamoru rolled his eyes.

"Is that true?" The officer asked.

"...I've never met her before," Mamoru said cautiously, "But my parents died when I was quite young. I never knew my mother's parents, so it's possible. Not very likely though."

"Well," The officer said, "Leave your contact information with the officer at the front desk; we'll get ahold of you if it turns out to be true."

((()))

After the briefing had been completed, and some degree of socialization thereafter petered out, Revere was left to speak with the Chairman of the

Joint Chiefs alone, on a more specific subject.

"The politicians tried to force someone to join up," The Chief said, gesturing for Revere to follow him to his office, "It took some finagling for me to get the Secretary to show me the footage of what actually happened, but it looked like someone got heavy-handed trying to pull a PR coup. What do you know about parallel dimensions?"

"They exist," Revere said, some distaste in his voice, "And generally you don't want to mess with them. They're not inherently nasty, but every incident we've got records on, ended bittersweet at best."

"So," The Chief said, "If a man claims to be from a parallel version of America?"

"Could very well be true," Revere replied, "This was one of the individuals involved with the Borneo event?"

"The leader of the team that was working with the Japanese after the event," the Chief said as they entered his office, "He made contact with the Forrestal's carrier group just off the coast, and arranged for a more intentional meeting on Okinawa. That's where they essentially tried to conscript him; he reacted poorly."

"Not surprising," Revere said, shaking his head as he took a seat in front of the Chief's desk, "His team took on a Praetorian Strike Team, outnumbered if what I've heard is right, and won. He was basically fighting the equivalent of magical Navy Seals; if he really is from another plane, then he was either one of the major movers present there, or a pretty serious Hermit."

"Hermit?" the Chief asked.

"A common term in the magical world for someone who is basically a private practitioner," Revere said, shaking his head, "Part of the nature of the personal power that being a practitioner grants, is that people with it tend more towards independence and self-reliance, or in extremes, megalomania. Hermits are practitioners who care little for the politics or social structures of the magical world, they simply want to pursue their practice in private. Given how much concealment magic there is out there, some of them can be damned hard to find, and a very few of them can be very powerful."

Paul paused for a moment to sigh.

"Once every century or two, one of the more powerful Hermits will choose to throw their lot into politics, or a war in progress, and it's a bit like someone walking up to a chess game in progress, and sticking a purple queen onto the what happened in Borneo, I'm not surprised one of them decided it was worth looking into."

"What kind of threat level are we looking at here?" the Chief asked, "He claimed to be able to fabricate nuclear weapons on-demand."

Revere winced.

"That's possible," He said cautiously, "Transmutation of elements is possible, though very difficult. I'd be surprised if more than a hundred people on the planet could manage it, before the Borneo event. They'd have to understand what Uranium actually is in order to make it, which is why so few would be capable, but it is possible. That's one of the things that the magical community heavily self-polices on, and sane organizations have agreed no practitioners in the muslim world are allowed to know.

"Honestly, the fact that he could be capable of that worries me less than the fact that he had a team. A team of Hermits working together, each powerful enough to survive a clash with a Praetorian Strike Team, that's managed to stay below the radar this far? The real danger there is that they know how to hide groups of people, and the fact that if whatever caused the Borneo Event was still there, they're the ones who walked away with it."

((()))

Beryl's scream woke Kimiko, who came tearing out of the guest-room, head full of half-formed thoughts of magical ninja attacking her friend. What she found, however, was Beryl, terror in her eyes, bedding soaked with sweat, and nothing else readily visible in her room.

Oh kami, I hope this isn't PTSD, Kimiko thought furiously as she skirted around the bed to take Beryl's hands in her own. She cringed inside when Beryl flinched at being touched, but it did draw the taller woman's attention on to her, breaking the thousand-yard stare she'd been displaying thus far.

"What was it?" Kimiko asked, before shaking her head, "Whatever it was, it was a dream; you're safe at home now."

Beryl panted heavily, eyes flickering around the room; Kimiko retrieved one of her hands to flip on the overhead light, before returning it to hold both of her friend's again.

"I," Beryl eventually said, "I don't remember."

((()))

"...Is there a _reason_ you haven't already healed her?" Lynette asked as she examined the catatonic child's body in front of her.

"There's no soul in the body," Jaeger said with a wince, before lifting up the half-melted TV he'd taken from Makoto's apartment, "She was a victim of possession, and when I tried to get the possessing soul out, I accidentally got _both._ I don't know _why_ exactly, so if I try to stick her soul back in, odds are decent that the possessor will be returned as well, and if it comes to be in control of a healthy body, that'll be _trouble_."

" _Or_ ," Lynette said, a small smile in her voice and on her lips, "You could try to split the souls into two different inanimate objects, and keep trying until you succeed, then put the poor girl's soul back into her own body when you've succeeded at that."

"...Right," Jaeger said, reaching up to rub his face with the palm of his hand, "Or the obvious solution, yeah. There's also the issue that her father is willingly possessed and plotting an invasion of this dimension by a being along the lines of Cthulu, but we can deal with that after we're no longer carrying around the literal soul-devouring TV.

"Quite," Lynette said with a smile, "I'll take care of healing the body, you work on getting her soul back where it belongs.

((()))

 _It took my construct three attempts to get one soul, but not the other out of an inanimate object. I moved them first from the slagged TV into a Tomato, then into a Bowling Pin, before finally getting Mistress 9 Soul into an Ukelele. It took three days of recharging Zeon to finally manage the split, then put Hotaru back into her own body; Lynette repaired her body (including regrowing non-cybernetic arms and legs) in about twenty seconds._

 _Made me feel like a rather severe underachiever._

 _Still, I eventually_ did _get her soul back into her restored body, which just left me two issues to deal with on that front The soul of an eldritch horror stuck in an Ukelele, and what to do with a traumatized thirteen-year-old I'd sort-of kidnapped._

((()))

When Hotaru woke up, she immediately felt _different._ It wasn't a painful, or even particularly _intense_ thing at first, but it was _pervasive._ She felt different in her head, in her chest, in her arms, in her legs, in her…

Hotaru snapped upright, throwing off the bedding covering her, and looked down at her hands. Two hands made of _flesh._ The left was a perfect mirror to the right, at least until she brought it close enough to look at her fingerprints; those were different, but nothing else that she could tell was, including the amount of control and muscle in each. She knew, from looking into what people in normal physical therapy went through, that usually it took weeks or months to recover full control and strength after a major accident.

Something that, apparently, she wouldn't have to suffer through. A wiggling of toes proved that, as best could be without a visual inspection, her leg and foot had been restored as well; she left off checking on that for having a look at the room around her though.

She was in a small western-style bedroom, with a bed, dresser, bedside table, and a plushly padded chair. The chair was currently occupied by an older woman with Filipino features, who had a book in one hand, while the other stroked the enormous cat laid across her lap. Seeing the cat brought back a rush of memory, reminding her what had happened the _last_ time she had seen it.

"Good morning Hotaru," the woman said warmly in flawless Japanese, "Are you feeling well?"

Hotaru nodded worldessly.

"Good," the woman said with a smile, "I am the primary healer for our organization, and I'm happy to inform you that the exorcism, though complicated a bit, has been successful. You shouldn't have any more problems with blackouts. I decided to deal with some older health issues you had while we had you, I assume you don't mind?"

Hotaru shook her head numbly.

"Good," the woman said, "Now, I'm sure you'll have other questions you'd like to ask, but I'll leave those to our mutual friend here."

So saying, she (with some effort) lifted the cat off of the chair and her lap, plunked it down on Hotaru's bed, then left the room.

Hotaru and the cat stared at each other for a while.

"What happened?" Hotaru eventually asked, more than a little confused.

"The exorcism didn't take right the first time," The cat said, "I had to stick your soul in a bowling pin for a while, and the eldritch horror's soul ended up in an Ukelele. You want a souvenir?"

Hotaru was no less confused.

((()))


	9. Chapter 9

AN: Beware stalking 'Coons.

((()))

"You wanted to speak with me?"

Natsuna Sakurada started _violently_ , and Jaeger found a small hold-out pistol pointed at his head before the woman regained control of herself.

"Surprising armed women is rarely a good idea," she said frostily as she eyed the oversized cat for a long moment, before returning the weapon to its holster, "And yes, I did. I would have much preferred if you'd left a more direct means of contacting you."

"That would rather defeat the purpose of being in hiding," Jaeger said with a feline grin as he dismounted from the window of her residence, and stalked across the floor to seat himself in front of her, "And besides, you did manage to figure out how to get my attention."

"Leaving notes in secured crime scenes is _not_ an appropriate means of communication," Natsuna said, "So before this conversation finishes, _please_ leave me a better means of contacting you. Or just don't leave. You have caused me _quite_ a bit of trouble lately."

"...I assume this has to do with my fight at Makoto's apartment," Jaeger said, "I'm going to need to buy her a new TV."

"If you keep this up," Natsuna said a bit crankily, "You're going to need to find me a new _job._ A number of more 'traditional' politicians have taken that incident as the opportunity to imply that Japan will be the next target in these attacks that have been striking around the world over the last week. Given the lack of an arrested culprit, despite the dozens of witnesses, they are portraying it as a failure on my part. My position as the Superintendant-General has always been slightly tenuous, given biases in many members of the Diet, my gender, and my age, and it's looking like we're going to be changing Prime Minister soon."

She paused, taking a deep breath before continuing somewhat morosely.

"And on top of all of this, I lost some of my _best_ men in Kota Kinabalu, leaving me with a lot less ability to deal with a crisis like this."

"...I'm sorry," Jaeger said roughly, "How can I help?"

"Handing over whatever it was you caught would be a good start," Natsuna said with a sigh, "Ideally, you'd appear before the National Public Safety Commission. They're still taking it poorly, but the Emperor has sent one of his Onmyoji to explain to them that yes, magic _is_ real, even if it is usually 'proper' enough to remain discrete."

"...I can do both of those," Jaeger said, "Though given I stuck the soul of the possessing entity in a ukelele, I don't think people would give much credence to that 'arrest.' If you want me to appear at your next meeting with that commission, you're either going to need to tell me when and where that will be right now, or we'll have to work out a secure means of communicating reasonably quickly. Also, I need a small favor."

((()))

"Sir," the secretary of the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff called, "A message has been forwarded to us from the Secretary of State's office. Apparently the newly-crowned King of Congo wants to coordinate a joint military strike against the Moon."

The Chief leaned back in his chair and _looked_ at his secretary, the junior officer wincing slightly at the blatant skepticism on his face.

"Yes sir," the secretary said, "Usually it _would_ have been politely handled by a functionary, but the diplomatic communique was delivered by courier; there were moon rocks in the envelope with it."

" _Real_ moon rocks?" the Chief asked.

"NASA staff at the White House say they have the right properties; they've been sent off for full spectrum analysis in the meantime."

"Right," the Chief said with a sigh, "Find something less urgent on my schedule, and block out some time. Who's this 'king' going to send?"

"He apparently intends to come himself."

((()))

"This is ridiculous," Tsukino Ikuko said, glaring at the police officer accompanying 'Mr. Gates,' the tall Gaijin who was (for not much longer) seated in their living room, "And you should be ashamed of enabling him in this."

"Are you quite certain about that?" the foreigner said, and Ikuko turned back towards him, then froze as the man turned into a _cat_ right in front of her, "Because it seems quite plausible to me."

"Cats don't talk!" Tumbled out of Ikuko's mouth, any further words cut off by her husband gently laying a hand over it.

"A very impressive transformation," Tsukino Kenji said, smiling politely, "I suppose if you're a talking cat, that means that my daughter is a magical girl?"

"Quite," Jaeger replied, 'sitting' upright and wrapping his tail around his rear and paws, in one of the more formal postures possible for a cat, "However, my group does not approve of using children as soldiers, and as such, we prefer to take children with 'great destinies' and keep them concealed from pretentious blowhards who wish to manage such for them until they are at least adults.

"The prior child whose care I and my team managed was an orphan, and had to be rescued from an abusive home; we found him and his bed locked in a cupboard. We functioned as his foster family for many years, and as he began to come of age, we worked to eradicate the 'evil menace' that he was 'destined' to overcome. I was sent away before that task was completed, but my companions tell me that he was in as good condition as could be expected for a young orphan when they moved on."

"Usagi is not an orphan, however," Tsukino Kenji said, "And as her family, we shall certainly support her."

"Then it would be best for you to come into hiding as well," Jaeger said, shifting back to human form and nodding, "I have a strong working relationship with the TMPD, and they would be willing to do what they can to protect your family. I would recommend coming with me and my team, however, as we are more capable of dealing with supernatural threats than they, and unlike my prior case, your daughter is part of a _team_ of young, 'destined' magical adolescents, and it will be far easier to protect them all in one place."

"And your recommendation?" Kenji asked, turning to look at the TMPD officer.

"Mister Gates has the direct recommendation of the Superintendent-General of the TMPD," the officer said, his tone quite formal, "It is on her direct orders that I am accompanying him on this visit, to help you understand the gravity of the situation."

"...We will need some time to think about it," Kenji said after a moment, "How long are you willing to wait for our response, Gates-san?"

"I am willing to pick up your family to join your daughter at any time while she is still under our protection," Jaeger said with a shrug, "However, we do not have the manpower to properly protect your family at all hours indefinitely. The question is whether or not those looking for her will identify you, and attempt to reach her through you."

"I see," Kenji said with a nod, before clapping his hands together and turning to look at his wife, "Ikuko, I believe we will be dining out tonight. Please get Shingo ready for a visit to a nice restaurant."

Ikuko nodded hesitantly, then stood and left the room.

"We shall have an answer for you by the end of our meal," he continued, turning back to Jaeger and the policeman, "How should I reach you?"

"Call the TMPD headquarters," the officer said, handing Kenji a business card, "And ask to be forwarded to this number; it will reach the phone in my patrol car. Thank you for taking this situation seriously, Tsukino-san."

"Thank you for your service and protection," Kenji said, standing and bowing briefly to the other two men, "The both of you."

((()))

"Makoto, Ami," Lynette said, "This is Hotaru."

The smaller girl waved at the two older girls.

"Jaeger and I just finished running out a possession and healing her earlier today, and we agreed that you two would probably be the best for her to have some social interaction with. Feel free to tell her about anything, _except_ for full names of anybody involved in our group. She may choose to go back to Japan rather than join up with us, and it'd be better if we didn't need to use any memory magic before sending her back. Any questions before I leave?"

Ami raised her hand.

"Just ask, Ami," Lynette said with a tired smile, "This isn't a classroom."

"Will Jaeger be joining us?" She asked quietly.

"Maybe once he's actually rested some," Lynette said gently, "He's in bed right now, Doctor's Orders," Lynetted tapped herself in the chest, before pulling a pack of cards out of a pocket there, "Here, maybe some games will break the ice."

She dropped the deck of cards on the small table beside Hotaru's bed, then turned and left.

"...Do either of you actually _know_ any card games?" Makoto asked after a long moment of awkward silence.

Ami raised her hand again.

((()))

"You," Nephrite said as Revere walked into the conference room the self-crowned king of Congo was waiting in, "Are not the Chief of Staff. Who are you?"

"You can call me General Paul Revere," Revere replied, offering his hand, "I'm in overall command of 'Special Assets.' You had a proposal for a joint operation against this 'Black Moon Clan'?"

"Indeed," Nephrite said, showing off a slightly disturbing smile as he shook Revere's hand, "I have both located their base of operations, and have the ability to bring a strike team there."

"Said location being?" Revere asked.

"The Moon."

((()))

"You're an easy man to find, Mister Hino," Jaeger greeted as he stepped onto the hotel's roof, which hosted a pool as well as quite a number of guests, one of which was a stocky old man sunbathing.

"I'm hardly in hiding," the old priest said, turning to look at the tall foreigner approaching him, "Though I'd not expected you to come looking for me, Youkai. How is my grand-daughter doing? Is she amongst those affected by the memory loss?"

"...Yes," Jaeger said, "I'll admit I am somewhat surprised you are not. Given the events around that effect, she has gone into hiding with her new friends. I'm here to see if you wish to join her."

"Me?" Hino said, smirking a little, "Not her father?"

"Do you think he'd accept the offer," Jaeger replied, "Even if she wanted him to accompany her?"

Hino just laughed, shaking his head, before pulling himself to his feet, and starting towards the small superstructure that housed showers and the elevator.

"I'll join you," he said, wrapping his towel around his shoulders as he did so, "Though I may have a few terms I would like met."

"I'm glad to hear it," Jaeger said, falling in beside the other man, and nodding to the police officer waiting by the elevator, "We're still awaiting word from the Tsukinos."

"No longer, Gates-san," the officer said, "They have accepted; I suggest we return to their residence, and guard it until they are prepared to depart."

Jaeger turned a meaningful look Hino's way.

"I'm a priest," Hino said, grinning again, "I travel light; I have two bags to collect, then I can join you."

((()))

Go Fish, while far from the most sophisticated of card games, _was_ fairly universal. Mostly determined by chance, the only real skill to the game was remembering what other players were looking for, on the chance you drew such cards yourself. More important than any issue of skill in play, however, it started the three girls talking, first about the game, then other card games, then Ami's apparently-encyclopedic knowledge of games she'd never actually played before.

"Two years ago," Ami explained quietly, "I learned all the games I could, so that if anyone ever actually asked me to play with them, I'd know how."

"If?" Makoto asked, "Nobody ever asked you to join?"

Ami shook her head with, a small self-deprecating smile twisting her lips.

"Typical," Makoto said, shaking her head, "Hotaru, got any sixes?"

"Go fish," Hotaru said quietly, shaking her head.

"It's stupid," Makoto continued, "It's so stereotypical, just like in manga and movies, kids always picking on the nerds. That shouldn't be a problem at the new school though."

"What new school?" Hotaru asked quietly.

"It's a sports-focused school," Ami said, smiling gently at the younger girl, "Sensei took us to visit us, and we met the Principle. He takes bullying very seriously, and rough behavior off of the game field can result in immediate expulsion."

"...Why are you going to a sports school?" Hotaru asked, staring at Ami curiously, "Do your parents want you to be more active?"

Ami winced slightly, something that both of the other girls immediately noticed. An awkward silence held over the room for several long moments, eventually broken by Hotaru.

"Makoto," she said quietly, "Do you have any eights?"

((()))

"Hey, Song!"

Jae Gu Song stopped and turned, surprised to hear a male voice calling his name inside of Wild's Academy; his surprise was only momentary though, as he caught sight of the large polynesian walking up behind him.

"Ah, Jay Gates?" Jae Gu said, "You're the new male student here, right?"

"Yeah," Gates said, walking up and clapping a hand on the younger student's shoulder, "Saw your fight at the tournament; good stuff man. Had any more trouble from that kid since?"

"Ah," Jae Gu said, scratching behind his ear a little self-consciously, "No, I haven't seen him since. What can I do for you, upperclassman?"

"Nothing," Gates said with a smile, patting the younger man on the shoulder again before lowering his hand, "Just introducing myself. I understand it's custom in this country for upperclassman to sort of mentor their underclassmen. I'm not big on tradition, but I'm big on service towards others; it's a Godly virtue after all. If you ever need help from someone, or just a chance to get away from all the girls for a while, talk with another guy, look me up."

"...Uh, okay?" Jae Gu said, "Are you sure there isn't anything I can do for you?"

"..." Gates paused for a moment, before glancing around, then leaning in closer to whisper, "You know what bathroom we're supposed to use? I haven't found a men's yet..."

A short, surprised bark of laughter escaped from Jae Gu.

"There's one, down a floor," he said, smiling, "I'll show you."

((()))

"What guarantee do we have that you won't just abandon our men wherever you take them to?" Revere eventually asked.

"What guarantee do I have that you won't respond by bombarding my nation into oblivion, or simply conquering it outright?" Nephrite replied, "While I am confident that I am one of the most powerful Mages in the world right now, I have no delusions of my ability to defeat a nation as large as yours in protracted warfare. Perhaps after I have absorbed and reformed more of Africa, but that is an issue to be dealt with a few centuries down the line. My hope is that by then we will be well-established allies."

"Do you really think you can plan effectively that far ahead?" Revere asked curiously.

"Plan?" Nephrite said with a smile, "Not in detail, no. But I know what my objectives are, and I expect to progress steadily towards them until there is a major paradigm shift in the current state of Africa."

((()))

"Hotaru," Ami eventually asked, "You are thirteen?"

Hotaru nodded.

"Sensei said that you _might_ be choosing to go back to Japan," Ami said carefully, fidgeting with the three cards left in her hands, "Why would you stay, and why would you go?"

It took a few moments for Hotaru to reply, during which Makoto asked for Tens.

"The large cat said that I could be a magical girl," she said slowly, "I think I'd like that. The cat and the Doctor also forced out-" Hotaru broke off for a moment, her eyes watering, but forced a smile onto her face and continued, "-An evil spirit that was possessing me, and regrew my arm and leg. I think I'm probably safer with them than in Tokyo."

Makoto and Ami both studied the younger girl for several long seconds, and Hotaru curled in on herself a little.

"Do you have any family in Tokyo?" Makoto asked bluntly.

Hotaru nodded, and her watering eyes developed into full-on crying.

Ami fidgeted in her seat, uncomfortable at the smaller girl's emotional display. Makoto glanced at Ami briefly, before rolling her eyes, standing, and moving around the table to pull Hotaru into a hug.

"Did something bad happen to them?" Ami asked hesitantly.

Hotaru nodded, the movement barely visible to Ami over Makoto's shoulder. No words were spoken for some time, Makoto sitting down on Hotaru's bed, then pulling the younger girl into her lap. Ami opened her mouth to speak several times, but couldn't find words she considered adequate to use in the face of Hotaru's clear pain.

"Papa is a scientist," Hotaru eventually managed to force out, "Years ago, one of his experiments went wrong while Mama and I were visiting. Mama died."

Ami winced, Makoto's jaw clenched, and she squeezed Hotaru tightly.

"...I didn't remember the rest until after the possession was forced out," Hotaru gasped, her voice and face wet with tears and snot, "But it was _Papa_ that let the spirit possess me." Her voice began to break down completely, "He gave it _permission!_ "

At that, Hotaru lost it completely, breaking down into tearing wails, while an increasingly furious Makoto held her tightly. Ami fumbled around for words, before eventually giving up on them entirely. For a long moment, she considered leaving the room, but one glance at Makoto's expression immediately killed _that_ idea.

It took several attempts to interpret the taller girl's meaning, but Makoto was more than happy to repeatedly gesture with her head until Ami understood, and the bluenette moved over to Hotaru's bed to embrace her as well.

Hotaru cried for a _long_ time.

((()))

Beryl was _more_ than happy to return to her laboratory, even if a vacation had been cut short to do so; she didn't think she'd be able to look at a cruise ship the same way ever again, anyways. Kimiko was less thrilled to be back at the lab; for her, it was mostly just another day at work, even if she shared Beryl's passion for their project, which was primarily a part of the Human Genome Project.

Hundreds of researchers around the world took part in the project; Beryl, Kimiko, and their lab assistants were far from unique in participating in the project, and had actually been assigned to work on it because of how junior they were compared to the rest of the Tokyo U staff in the biology field. Although there was some prestige associated with the HGP, it was _incredibly_ repetitive work. All scientific research conducted with proper rigor was to _some_ degree, but the human genome had roughly three point three _billion_ base pairs to sequence.

No single research team was covering even a tenth of that, but it still meant _thousands_ of repetitions of the same basic set of tasks. After the first day, it became repetitive. By the end of the first week, it was monotonous. By the end of the first _month_ , participants either learned coping mechanisms, or it became mind-numbingly, soul-grindingly _boring._ Kimiko and Beryl dealt with it by talking about whatever came to mind while working; once the tasks involved had been repeated enough to become second nature, very little brainpower was required to keep moving (excepting certain specific stages of work).

"Looks like a TATA box," Kimiko said as she studied the latest results on display.

"So another transcription setup," Beryl said, "Where's the new RA? Isn't he supposed to be in today?"

"He called to say he'd be late," Kimiko said, saving the latest data set, then pushing away from the lab's primary computer on her wheeled chair, "Something about giving the police his statement after being on the wrong street during a weird gang fight. He still intends to be in, just late."

"Well," Beryl said with a bit of a smirk, "He'll be the one cleaning the lab today then."

"It's not really his fault," Kimiko said, rolling her eyes, "Why do you keep picking on him?"

"Because he has a crush on me," Beryl said, turning to look at Kimiko as she activated the next stage of the Pyrosequencer that most of their work centered around, "Something I'm trying to discourage."

"Why?" Kimiko asked, giving Beryl a _look_ , "He's pretty good-looking, he's smart, and he's very gentlemanly."

"Going out with him would also be an ethics violation," Beryl said, "He's a student in our department, remember?"

"Sure, for the next few months," Kimiko said, rolling her eyes again, "Once he graduates you can go out with him, if you haven't convinced him you're a cold-blooded harpy by that point."

"If he's still interested after a few more months of minor put-downs," Beryl said, smiling slyly, "Maybe he's worth my time. If not, well, I've no interest in a man who can't stay committed."

((()))

"Welcome to the Animal House," Caitlyn said with a faint smirk as she greeted the Tsukinos and Hino at the door, "Residence of hominids, felines, and part-time canids and ursas. Care for the nickel tour?"

Hino flipped her a coin; snatching it out of the air, Caitlyn saw that it was, in fact, a nickel.

"Any particular reason a Japanese Shinto Priest is carrying American coinage?" Caitlyn asked as she stepped aside, allowing the newcomers through the door.

"No," Hino said as he slipped his shoes off, "Concrete construction on a two-story house?"

"Durability," Caitlyn said with a shrug as she walked down the entry hall, tapping a closed door on her way past, "This is the coat closet; not much in it right now, but that'll change if we're here through Winter."

Continuing forward she reached a sort of junction, where a support pillar separated two doorways that had no frames, much less doors, a set of stairs terminated, and two separate doors were closed.

"This is the first floor bathroom," she said, opening one of the doors, "Toilet and sink only, lots of counter space though. This-" she walked through on of the two open doorways, "Is the living and dining room areas."

They followed her through, and saw that there were two moderately large 'rooms,' mostly identical save the one adjacent to the bathroom had its interior and exterior walls set closer in, leaving it the same size as the room adjacent to the stairwell, but offset. Both rooms had their entire far walls taken up by large sliding glass doors which opened out into a modest private yard, which was fenced in, and opened out to a larger courtyard beyond. No wall separated the two rooms, but their slightly offset positioning still prevented them from having the 'feel' of a single room.

"We'll probably be setting one of these up as a mixed study and dining room," Caitlyn said, turning around and heading back into the corridor junction, "And the other as a mixed living and TV room. Upstairs, there's a mixed bathroom/laundry room with toilet sink and bath, two normal bedrooms, and a master bedroom with its own separate full bathroom.

She opened the other door off of the junction, revealing a _very_ large kitchen, with two sliding glass doors that led outside, and another interior door along the same wall as the one they entered through.

"This is actually the kitchen of two separate houses conjoined," Caitlyn said, gesturing towards the other interior door, "We're renting both properties, and the interior layout is identical but mirrored to this one. We're provisionally planning on putting the Tsukinos and Hinos in one half together, maybe with Minako joining them. Do you have any preference?"

"May we see the upstairs first?" Tsukino Kenji asked.

"Sure," Caitlyn said with a shrug, turning around to leave the kitchen and head upstairs, "Follow me."

((()))

"When you said you were going to need me to stand witness," Jaeger said as he slipped into view in the waiting room, "I didn't think it would be so _soon._ "

"Neither did I," Natsuna said with a sigh, "Whoever is moving in the Diet, is doing so _fast._ Half the commission members have already been replaced, which only surprises me because of how _fast_ it has happened. What worries me more, is that I don't know _who_ is the actual power broker behind this. There's a half-dozen big names working loosely together, but I don't know which, or who else, put their focus on _me._ "

"I know jack all about the current Japanese political situation," Jaeger said with a shrug as he hopped up and sat on one of the chairs and wrapped his tail around his legs, "I know the laws the country is set up on, but not the players in said system. What do I need to know here?"

"Mostly, just tell the truth directly," Natsuna said, pulling out a compact to check her understated make-up quickly, "Do you have any sort of magic that helps with memory?"

"Sort of," Jaeger replied, "I'm superhumanly smart at this point, so my recall is nigh-perfect."

"I'll be deferring to you where my memories are unclear then," Natsuna said, stowing the compact again, "This is basically an inquiry into my handling of the attacks at Kota Kinabalu; the man charged with actually conducting the questioning is Ichihara Kensuke. From what I've been able to gather, he's going to be deliberately trying to make me out to be incompetent. Watch out for traps he tries to lay."

"Right," Jaeger said, surprised Natsuna hadn't asked him to shift into human form, "Tell the truth, keep from getting trapped, you're trusting me to remember things clearly, anything else in our game plan?"

"Yes," Natsuna said with a smile, gesturing for Jaeger to move over to her, then sweeping him up into her arms, before standing, " _Oof_. I'd forgotten how much more than a regular cat you weigh. We're going to be keeping the 'enemy' off balance."

((()))

"I'm sorry," Hotaru said wetly, once she had partially recovered from her breakdown, "I've ruined your blouse."

"Oh no," Makoto said, rolling her eyes, "My blouse needs to go through the laundry," her voice dropped to a growl, "I want to put your _father_ through the washing machine! What the hell was he thinking?"

Hotaru shivered a bit, and Makoto sighed, while Ami leaned back, giving the other two girls some room. Both glanced over at the door for a moment as they heard Ciatlyn's voice, and a group of people walk past.

"I don't expect _you_ to answer," Makoto said, "I just _hate_ it when people abuse each other just because they're stronger, and your father has _definitely_ done that to you."

Hotaru looked down, nodding miserably, and an awkward silence reigned over the room for a while.

"Makoto," Ami said quietly, "Do you remember your parents at all?"

"A little," Makoto said with a sigh, "And I have a few pictures. Dad was the one who started me on martial arts, and mom taught me exactly two recipes before they died. Neither of them ever tried any

crap like this."

"That's good," Ami said, nodding faintly, before reaching over to gently lay a hand on Hotaru's shoulder, "...Would you like to hear about _my_ father?"

Hotaru nodded.

"He's an artist," Ami said with a sigh, scooting over so she could lean against Hotaru, "Pretty successful, though not terribly well-known outside of art and high-society circles. I haven't seen him in six years."

"Why not?" Makoto asked, tensing up a bit again.

"He left us," Ami said, curling in on herself a little, "I didn't hear much of he and mother's argument, but he was talking about how we were detracting from his art."

A moment of silence hung over the room, and Makoto turned to stare at Ami.

"Did he _really_ say that his _family_ was cutting too much into his _art?_ " She said, voice laden with disbelief.

Ami nodded.

"What a jerk," Makoto said flatly, "You're better off without someone like that."

Ami flinched at Makoto's words, and the taller brunette scowled.

"I know it sucks to hear," She said, aggression warring with gentleness in her tone, "But it's true. Work is an important part of life, I'd know, but it's not something you _leave your family_ for. That's just _wrong._ "

Neither of the girls could think of anything to say in response; after a while, Makoto huffed, then pulled Ami and Hotaru both into a hug, her larger frame letting her wrap her arms easily around the two smaller girls.

((()))

"That seems implausibly bulky," Nephrite said, raising an eye in some surprise as he studied the space suits the American strike team was wearing.

"Perhaps," Revere said with a shrug as he inspected the strike team's equipment himself, "But they'll survive the void of space without needing magic to sustain them."

"They are incapable of environment adaptation spells?" Nephrite asked curiously.

"No," Revere said, turning to face Nephrite as he spoke, "But why waste their magical stamina when we have mundane equipment that can fulfill the function for them?"

Nephrite turned back to look at the twelve bulky white figures again, before turning to look back at Revere once more.

"I'm sorry," Nephrite said, shaking his head, "But it is hard to take them seriously while so attired."

"Good," Revere said with a smile, "Then they're working as intended."

((()))

Sakurada Natsuna walked into the conference room of the National Public Safety Commission like she owned the place. It was ostentatious, in the understated 'high wealth business' style that the Japanese Government had largely adopted; there was no gaudy ornamentation, no elaborate or gilded furniture, everything was simply of high quality. The men seated at the table were _almost_ a stereotype of Japanese politicians; the only divergence came in the fact that half of them weren't _technically_ actual politicians. They were instead academics, Deans, Provosts, University Presidents, and as such, they were instead _Academic Politicians_.

To Natsuna's mind, that made them likely worse. A public politician was accountable to his electorate; politics within an academic establishment were generally conducted amongst those already of near-identical mindsets, with a vastly smaller 'voting base,' which was far more insulated from reality.

Ichihara Kensuke, not actually a member of the Commission, stood, rather than sat within the room; he was tall for a Japanese man, and already attempting to use his height to intimidate her. 'Proper' Japanese greeting formalities followed Natsuna's entry; she went through them on auto-pilot, eyes tracking across the largely-impassive faces of the board members, before locking on to Ichihara.

"Let's be about it," she said concisely, once the formalities had concluded and she had taken a seat facing the entire commission across the conference table, "All of us are busy people and have other responsibilities to fulfill."

Jaeger, meanwhile, was just large enough that his head peaked up over the edge of the table in spite of him being seated on Natsuna's lap, and using that fact to stare at the invisible Onmyoji concealed in one corner of the conference room. He also noticed the pair of discrete security cameras recessed into the ceiling, but paid them little mind; mundane security was not something he really worried about any more.

"I will be direct then," Ichihara said, "Concerns have been expressed that your handling of the attacks at Kota Kinabalu was unbecoming of so high-ranking an official within the Japanese Government, especially on foreign soil."

"Which attacks?" Natsuna asked, her expression of polite interest practically screaming 'you are no threat to me' at Ichihara.

"Both of them," Ichihara said, clearly intending to continue, but Natsuna cut him off.

"There were three attacks on Kota Kinabalu during the time I was there," Natsuna said, "Were you not cleared to learn of the first?"

Ichihara turned to look at the head of the board, who minutely shook his head.

"Fabricating tales of further events will get you nowhere," Ichihara said as he turned back to Natsuna, eyes narrowed, "This is an inquiry regarding _facts_ , not _fiction._ "

"Let us set aside still-classified events then," Natsuna said, amusement clear in her voice, "And discuss the two events you _are_ prepared to cover."

((()))

Blaze was a bot of fairly simple tastes; he liked good times with friends, a good shot of energon, and watching things explode. Preferably Decepticons. He also _appreciated_ a good infiltration job. He still wasn't sure whether or not his ability to lay low on Earth counted as a 'good' infiltration job or not. Humans were as-yet unaware of the existence of other sapient life-forms, their information technology was in its infancy, and the only real obstacle to him accessing any information archive he wanted to, came from how much data was still handled via _non-digital media._

Once, for kicks, he'd shifted forms in front of a group of mildly-intoxicated males. The next day they'd concluded they were more drunk than they thought, rather than tried to fit the existence of autonomous robotic organisms capable of disguising themselves as any machine within the general vicinity of their mass.

Still, in its first decade of wide-spread use, the 'internet' still handled enough information that Blaze was able to provide a great deal of support in constructing cover stories for his human allies. It also made tracking Boss ('Jaeger' in this world, apparently) a great deal easier, at least when he was in higher-tech parts of the world.

Such as Tokyo.

What Blaze found to be of particular interest regarding the data feed from the security cameras showing him what his organic-transforming friend was up to, was the fact that someone _else_ was tapping into the feed as well.

((()))

"-And in conclusion," Ichihara said sharply, "Miss Sakurada was _completely_ unprepared to handle the situation both at the hospital and later aboard the cruise ship, demonstrating her lack of preparedness to serve in so important a role as the Director-General of the TMPD."

Silence resonated throughout the conference room, the board members saying nothing as Ichihara smirked down at Natsuna; the expression gradually faded however, as he took in how utterly disinterested she appeared to be in the proceedings at hand.

"Have you nothing to say in your defense?" he demanded sharply.

"Tell me," Natsuna said, raising a disdainful eyebrow at him, "When you go on vacation, do you bring a battalion of helicopter cavalry with you?"

"What does that have to do with anything currently under consideration?" Ichihara demanded.

"I was on a _Cruise_ ship," Natsuna said with a motherly smile, before reaching up to pat the side of his arm, "I was on _vacation._ At least, as far as you are cleared to know, that's what I was doing."

"Do _not_ touch me," Ichihara said, his voice clipped as his fists clenched.

"Very well, Mister Ichihara, but you in turn shall not lay a hand upon me yourself," Natsuna said, before turning her gaze towards the various members of the board, calmly stroking the cat in her lap as she spoke, "If _this_ ," she nodded towards Ichihara, "Is the best critique my political opponents have to offer, demeaning my combat-readiness while taking a _vacation?_ "

"If you were not prepared to handle the situation at hand," Ichihara said, a hint of smug assuredness returning to his voice, "You should not have involved yourself."

"So I should have left Japanese citizens to be killed or abducted?" Natsuna asked, her tone turning harsh, "Have you no shame? I would have involved myself had I been alone and _unarmed_."

"So you say," Ichihara said, "But your inability to deal with a handful of terrorist thugs, when you were armed and accompanied by bodyguards, speaks ill of your ability to accomplish _anything_ without your subordinates compensating for your incompetence."

Natsuna's expression went flat, and she stood, her chair pushed back as she rose, posture ramrod straight, one arm cradling the enormous cat that had been in her lap, the other perched upon her hip.

" _A handful of thugs_ ," Natsuna hissed dangerously, "Those were _not_ 'terrorist thugs.' They were _professionals_ , equipped with military equipment and body-armor, wielding weapons both natural and supernatural against us."

Ichihara _smiled_ , and a light of satisfaction entered his eyes.

"Supernatural?" he said smugly, "I had been advised that you would attempt to hide behind superstition to protect yourself from the consequences of your incompetence, but I had not thought you would actually be so foolish."

He paused for a moment, stepping so close to Natsuna that she could feel the heat of his breath as he stared down at her.

"Tell me," he continued, "Is it insecurity that drives you to spin such lies, or do you actually believe it yourself?"

"Tell me," Natsuna replied sharply, not retreating an inch as she met his gaze, "Do you know if it was bureaucratic mis-step that appointed you to be my accuser without adequate clearance, or is your lack of understanding the result of your own incompetence?"

Ichihara's expression turned ugly, and he reached forward to seize her by the elbow, jostling Jaeger from her arm as he did so.

"You come here hiding behind a _pet_ ," he snarled, yanking her forward so her body pressed up against his, "Telling lies about _magic_ -"

" _Jaeger_ ," Natsuna bit out sharply, and Ichihara found his hand locked in an iron grip, as something seized his collar and yanked him away from the smaller woman in front of him.

"I believe," a deep, growling voice snarled in his ear, "That the Director-General said that you were _not_ to lay a hand upon her."

((()))

"That's a match for Troll."

"Where?"

"...Looks like one of the governmental buildings in Tokyo. Those suits are probably pretty important."

"I'll tell the Strikers as part of the brief. Good work."

((()))

The human wrist is engineered in such a way that when it bends 'down,' it is anatomically impossible for a strong grip to be maintained on whatever is held by the fingers. Ichihara was a reasonably fit man, especially for an office-worker, but felt like an infant in the hand of a body-builder as his grip was removed from Natsuna's elbow, and he was half-pulled, half-thrown away from her.

"If you wish for _evidence_ of the existence of the Supernatural," an _enormous_ American man, dressed in nothing more than shorts and a muscle-vest, growled, "Then I, Jaeger, shall provide."

Arcs of electricity leapt between his hands, 'jumping' back and forth between fingers on opposing hands, before running back up along his arms, over his shoulders, and grounding themselves in his arms again.

"Trickery!" Ichihara stuttered, "The work of some form of implant!"

"Feel free to check for yourself," the man said, shrugging unconcernedly, before _tearing off_ one of his hands, and tossing the bloody mass at Ichihara.

One of the committee members gagged, all of them staring as Jaeger raised the mangled arm, and casually regrew a new hand.

"Miss Sakurada asked me to join here today," Jaeger said, passing a cool gaze across the members of the committee, "As a second witness to the three incidents in Kota Kinabalu. If any of you have questions about such, now would be the time to ask."

((()))

"Rome?" Blaze asked rhetorically, "Why would people in _Rome_ be looking in on some bunch of suits meeting in _Tokyo?_ It's not like they're at war..."

Reverse-tracking the link was trivially easy, given the disparity in tech levels, until he reached a hard cutoff in a public library. It took very little digging around to know that the public machine wasn't the _source_ of the peeping tom, and it took no great leap of logic for Blaze to figure out why he couldn't backtrack it any further.

"Damn mages," he grumbled to himself.

((()))

Three Strikers appeared in a precisely-calculated firing formation around Jaeger, angled so that none of them would be firing towards each other or the civilians present. They appeared with guns in hand, safeties off, fingers within their trigger-guards. Their teleportation, however, while instantaneous once _activated_ , was _not_ instantaneous in 'appearance of magical effect' to 'conveyance complete.' Acute supernatural senses warning him of spell-play, Jaeger was already moving when the Strikers appeared.

((()))

 _Teleportation is_ _ **loud.**_ _One would expect such of tearing a hole through the fabric of space-time, and the supernatural reverberations do_ not _disappoint. Sensing three points of arrival, centered around myself, it was_ not _hard to conclude that I was about to come under attack, and I activated a potentially very-important power, Read Electrical Impulses, to prepare for combat._

 _A new sense unfolded within my mind, one registering everything from the torrent of power flowing through the main trunk lines the building fed off of, to the 220 volt lines running through the walls, to the extremely fine interplay of electrical impulses through the nervous systems of the humans around me._

 _It was this last aspect that I was most concerned with, as it gave me a 'silhouette map' of everyone around me, and not just of where they_ were _, but also of what they were_ doing _. The three hostiles appeared in formation around me, weapons leveled, but I had felt them coming, and moved faster than they did. The instant they arrived, I started passively accumulating ki; raised guns were a clear indicator of hostility._

 _Burning fatigue, I struck the closest to my left immediately, knocking his shotgun off-bore, then twisted around him to put him at least partially between me and the other two shooters. Both of them were still confident enough in their skills to take the shot anyways, fire from an assault rifle and a large pistol ricocheting off of my psychokinetic armor. The pistolero strafed in along the side, continuing to fire, and I allowed him to gain position on me as I focused my attention on the shotgun-wielder, attempting to elbow him in the face, but merely catching him in the shoulder, while keeping the rifle-wielder's line-of-fire impaired._

 _She fired a second time regardless, again failing to score a direct enough hit to pierce my psychic armor, and I pressed in with my left knee, attempting to slam the shotgun wielder in the crotch. He dropped an elbow to absorb the blow, bringing his shotgun down into play as he did so, and I used the recoil of his elbow to tumble backwards, dropping below the line of his shot, and rolling back up directly in front of the pistolero, elbowing him in the face, bloodying his nose._

 _Natsuna fired two shots from her sidearm into his center-of-mass, and the man grunted harshly, but did not drop._

 _When the rifle-wielding woman snapped two shots into Natsuna, the police-woman_ did _drop, shrieking as blood spattered from her shoulder and abdomen._

 _I roared, and discharged halfish of the ki that I had been passively accumulating into an attack on the pistolero, hoping to simplify the fight before things got uglier; no luck, he drew a knife in his off-hand and forced me to re-direct my kick to just glance off of his side._

 _Worse, Shotgun finally hit me with a round, rifle-woman following up; 'feeling' their line of fire through the impulses in their nerves let me move off-bore, but my shields absorbing the impact still knocked me off-balance, nearly pitching me over._

 _The pistolero broke for more distance, and I let him go; even if he was already injured, he was the least dangerous of the three; I was somewhat loathe to do it, but I needed something that did more damage than my fist._

 _I initiated the Railgun power, whispering a prayer in my mind that the clear line of fire I could 'see' through my electromagnetic sense meant civilians were far enough out of the cone of destruction that they wouldn't catch tertiary damage from shrapnel. Focusing my two 'free' Psychic Points into the Potential Check, I achieved an Inhuman result, then burning more Ki on increasing my attack value, I seized an ornate hat-stand and used a sequenced discharge of electromagnetic forces to send it hypersonic._

 _A sonic boom shattered every non-protected eardrum in the room, hurled papers into the air, and tore a glowing-hot line through the air between me and the window. Shotgun and Assault Rifle both saw it coming, and tried to dive out of the way, but it only did them so much good._

 _A fusillade of shots from the last gunmen drew my attention, and I turned to_ glare _at him, allowing the rounds to ricochet ineffectively off of my telekinetic armor. He took the hint, and slapped something at his throat, causing all three of our attackers to disappear, leaving behind a bullet-riddled and thoroughly-ruined conference room._

 _They'd lost, and soundly, but nothing was stopping the from trying again some time in the future._

((()))

Natsuna had been shot _at_ before, but never been _shot_. It was a _distinctly_ painful experience, made much more so when Jaeger destroyed the hat-stand and made an absolute _mess_ of the room doing something deafening.

It caused the man she'd been trying to draw a bead on to teleport back out though, so she supposed it was worth it. When Jaeger walked over to lay a hand on her, causing the bullet holes in her side and arm to close, not to mention her _eardrums_ being repaired, she decided she was feeling charitable enough to forgive him.

"I'm fairly certain those were the survivors of the team from Kota Kinabalu," Jaeger said as he helped her to her feet, "They were wearing illusions, but the way they fought, their precise sizes, it was too similar."

"...It looked like they were here for you," Natsuna said as she began moving over to assist one of the gasping committee members, "Or do you think they were just taking out the biggest threat first?"

"They were here for your companion, Miss Sakurada," an unexpected voice called, and Natsuna turned to see one of the Emperor's Onmyoji fading into view beside the committee head, touching the man's ears as he spoke, "It appears that someone of considerable power and influence considers him a target of some priority. I would suggest that you not bring him into any sensitive places that are not secured against scrying, particularly as his nature as a shapechanger is now most certainly known to his enemies."

"I'll keep that in mind," Natsuna said, wrinkling her nose as she checked Ichihara over for signs of bleeding; the only liquid staining _his_ pants certainly _hadn't_ come from being wounded, "Jaeger, please relocate once we've ensured nobody is suffering from life-threatening injuries. It wouldn't do to invite a second round. I'll contact you the usual way."

"Right," Jaeger said with a nod, before turning to fix a glare on the Onmyoji, " _You_ had better expect I will not forget that you stood idly by while I fought for my life. If you and yours do likewise when she-" Jaeger jerked his head towards Natsuna, "Is next in danger from the supernatural, there _will_ be an accounting."

Then he teleported out.

((()))

Author's Note: So, there are reasons this has taken so long to update. First and foremost, I've been running Bruce Quest for over two years now, and that is _very_ much a factor in my other work slowing down. Second, the number of plot threads this story has spun out is _ridiculous._ It's caused issues with pacing, chapter bloat, character diffusion, all _kinds_ of nonsense. A few weeks ago, I though 'hey, I've caught all the plot threads up,' let's go back and do a last read-over of things.

And then I made a list of ten more things I needed to make sure I didn't forget to implement. _Yeesh._

 _That said_ , this is the first of about four chapters worth of material that's come together, and represents the 'middle' arc of the story, more or less. When I looked it over, at first I thought 'oh gosh, _why did I decide to do a 'high school' arc?_ Then I realized, 'it's really not much of a high school arc. Maybe 20% of what's going on is relevant to the fact that some of the characters are in a high school, as opposed to someplace else. And Wild's Academy is notably particularly full of _mature_ teenagers (for teenagers, anyways, Dal-Dal excepted), which means there's a lot less nonsense going on than usual.

Hopefully, what I'm learning about managing plot threads here will help me go back and finally finish War in Tokyo, which massively stalled out for the same plot-thread overload based reason. Interestingly, one of the main reasons for thread-bloat, is just trying to show the dichotomy between 'normal life' and 'magical shadow war' that some of the characters are having to deal with.


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: Since I failed at being consistent posting this, I'm now just dumping all of it at once. The last seven chapters and epilogue will all be going up at once now.  
**

((()))

"My apologies for being late," Mamoru said as he stepped into the lab, looking a bit strung out, "There was some strange little girl I'd never met before claiming she was my aunt, and given she had no guardians present, the police wanted to look into that claim before letting me leave."

"...Your _aunt?_ " Kimiko said a hint sarcastically, "How old was this girl?"

"Perhaps eight years old?" Mamoru said, shaking his head as he hung up his jacket, and donned a lab coat, "I'd never met her before in my life. I had to tell the police it's _possible_ though; I did not know my extended family well before the death of my parents, and I have had no contact with. For all I am aware, my grandfathers may _both_ be philanderers."

"...You're an orphan?" Kimiko asked, and Mamoru winced.

"Unfortunately," he replied, before turning his attention sharply to the log on the screen in front of Kimiko "Now, what did I miss?"

((()))

"First day of school!" Minako said cheerfully as she dragged Usagi out of bed, "Come on! There's so much to do!"

"Blamerihohgo," Usagi mumbled into her pillow, which she was clutching to her face as Minako dragged her along, "Sleeeeeep..."

"Nope!" Minako said cheerfully as she dragged Usagi towards the bathroom, "Remember, Wild's is an _athletic_ school, so you need to get in shape, and part of that means getting up on time!"

Usagi just moaned and squirmed a little, too lethargic to really resist the other blonde. After about a minute of dragging, Minako reached her destination and dropped Usagi, who smiled into her pillow for just a moment.

Then Minako turned the shower _on_ , and Usagi _screamed._

((()))

"Sounds like the rabbit is up," Rei said with a small smirk as she sipped at her tea slowly, sweat still shining on her brow from her morning run.

About half of the children in the house were seated around the table, all with slightly-shapeshifted features and not-so-slightly shifted colorations.

"I hope she's not always this noisy," Makoto said with a grunt as she continued to work breakfast across the stove, "It's too early for screaming."

"I'm impressed that blonde could get her awake at _all_ ," Shingo said from his seat at the table, idly kicking his legs back and forth while he waited for breakfast, "Meatball-head is _impossible_ to get up in the morning."

"...I don't think Aino-san took 'no' for an answer," Ami said quietly, "She seems like an insistent sort of person."

"She dragged Usagi into the shower," Caitlyn said with some amusement as she came down the stairs and turned into the kitchen, "Then turned it on. Thanks for cooking, Makoto."

"You're welcome," Makoto said with a small smile, "I like to cook anyways, though."

"Still saves me the time," Caitlyn said with a smile as she plopped herself into a chair, still looming over the rest of the girls (and Shingo) when seated, "Lynette doesn't like to take the time for hot breakfasts herself, and it's been so long since Jaeger was living with us last, that I've basically been the only breakfast cook in the house for years."

"I've lived alone for some time now," Makoto said with a shrug, "If I wanted to eat something, I had to cook it myself."

"That's usually what makes young adults learn," Lynette said as she came down the stairs and joined everyone in the kitchen, leaning against the counter as the table was out of space, "You're just getting an earlier start on it than most."

Makoto turned to look at Lynette for a moment, but said nothing.

"Come on Hotaru," Lynette called, "Nobody here is going to bite."

A dark-haired head poked around the corner of the wall to the stairs, looking over the kitchen's occupants shyly. Ami and Makoto both offered the younger girl a smile, Shingo ignored her, and Rei looked at the younger girl with some surprise.

"Are you all magical girls?" Hotaru asked.

"I am NOT a magical girl!" Shingo roared, standing up forcefully, "I am a _boy!_ You wouldn't catch me _dead_ in one of those stupid frilly skirts!"

Hotaru flinched back from the shouted response, ducking back into the stairwell and then running up the stairs. Caitlyn sighed, then reached over the table to seize Shingo by his collar and haul him up into the air.

"You and I are going to go have a talk with your mother, young man," Caitlyn declared as she left the table, tucking the squirming boy under her arm as she did so.

"She called me a _girl!_ " Shingo protested, "And I didn't call her names or anything back!"

Lynette sighed, rubbing her forehead as the boy's protests faded while he was dragged to the far side of the duplex.

"Sometimes I wish I'd had children of my own," she muttered, "And sometimes I'm glad the ones I did end up with came mostly-grown."

"Looks like things are off to an excellent start here," Rei said, a hint of amusement leaking from around her teacup.

((()))

"Leo Kazinski," a man said as he entered the rookie Praetorian's cell, "One of the younger, though by no means the youngest, to earn entry into the Praetorians in the last century. You've found yourself in quite the mess. Do you usually enter countries illegally to shoot up hospitals?"

"First week on the job," Kazinski said with a wan smile and a shrug, "Suddenly half your co-workers don't remember who they are, and the boss says to go grab whoever did it. Wasn't honestly worried so much about 'where' as 'what.'"

"According to our account from the 'man on the ground,'" the de-facto interrogator said as he seated himself across from Kazinski's shackled form, "Your squad moved in with 'shoot first, ask questions later, kidnap on sight' orders for a cousin of the Japanese Emperor, and a minor Japanese Citizen. If they were behind some sort of mass memory erasure, what were they doing in a hospital?"

"I don't know," Kazinski said, "All I know is the boss said to retrieve them for questioning. Seemed reasonable enough at the time; besides, we're not short on medical care facilities back at base."

"Fair enough," the interrogator said, leaning back in his chair, "The next part, less so. Someone on-site demands an explanation and keeps you from leaving with Fujiwara Beryl, and you immediately initiate violence. What's up with that?"

"I don't know," Kazinski said flatly, "It didn't make any sense. He was good enough to sneak up on us, so he wasn't a push over, and we had no reason to think he couldn't be reasoned with. I don't know why the order was given."

"Well then," the interrogator said, "Let me paint you a picture of the Praetorians that you may _not_ have heard of before, through the eyes of somebody who _wasn't_ born in Rome..."

((()))

"Do you remember the conversation we began while aboard ship, on our way to Okinawa?" Natsuna asked as she walked into the small lounge where Jaeger was waiting (in human form) for her in the TMPD headquarters.

"I assume you mean the one we had in private," Jaeger said, "Which was interrupted by a headache brought on by you recovering your memories of reality before Usagi's wish-effect?"

"Yes, that one," Natsuna said, groaning slightly as she seated herself in a plush chair and slipped off her heels so she could rub her feet, "I would rather like to continue it. Recent events have made me ask myself some rather existential questions."

Jaeger didn't respond immediately, and she looked up at him to see a surprisingly melancholy expression on his face.

"What's wrong?" She asked, "Is this not a good time?"

"It probably is," Jaeger said, "I simply have many bad memories regarding this sort of conversation. I'll set them aside for now though; what, specifically, would you like to continue discussing?"

"You were saying something about having a rational framework to understand the world, before my headache struck," Natsuna said, leaning back in her chair, "I like to think I'm a fairly reasonable person, but in introspection since we spoke, I've realized that a lot of my beliefs are simply based upon what my culture has impressed upon me, nothing more, and nothing less. How did you go about building this 'rational framework'?"

"A few things helped formulate my first principles," Jaeger said, "One of the biggest ones, was growing up moving between different cultures. It allowed me to largely sidestep the issue of simply subconsciously picking up a full set of cultural values while never being exposed to any others. I spent eleven of the first eighteen years of my life living outside the U.S., minus visits back to 'the states' as those of us in such expatriot communities called it.

"Seeing how differently people from various nations lived certainly helped me start with a less 'narrow' perspective on the world, but it was only part of it. A big second part, was being _very_ aggressive in my reading from a very young age. I read young adult novels when I was ten or eleven years old, and my first 'adult' novel sometime around my twelfth birthday. Reading doesn't automatically 'expand the mind,' because there's a _lot_ of drek out there, but if you read a broad variety of things written for a broad variety of purposes, by a broad variety of authors, _that_ will almost be guaranteed to do so.

"I read histories, historical fiction, 'classics' such as The Crucible or Shakespeare, early, 'mid' and modern science fiction, fantasy fiction, folklore, mythologies, commentaries on politics, and of course school textbooks, and the Bible. I only read bits and bobs of 'classics' rooted places other than English-speaking cultures during my younger years, something I sort of regret, but such things simply were not readily available. When I entered my late teens and early twenties I branched out more in that regard, but the point is, I covered a _lot_ of ground. I could happily read a thousand pages a day by my mid teens, and I went from being extremely physically fit, to having the physique of a 'nerd.'

"The crux of forming my worldview, the 'rational framework' being a part thereof, came when I was sixteen and seventeen. Two things happened; I took a class on classic Propositional Logic, and I realized that I was not satisfied with the kind of life that modern culture, both a blend of 'western' and 'eastern' where I lived at the time, presented me.

"The laws of logic are absolutely essentially to stake a philosophical belief in if one wishes to come to a meaningful understanding of the world. There are three 'core laws' of logic, some of which are so obvious, I would not have been able to consciously recall and distinguish them to you before my intellect was enhanced. They're so obvious they can be confusing, much like if you think too much about breathing, and then try to consciously control every aspect of the process, picking out each muscle and movement involved.

"The first rule is simple, 'That which is, is.' If a chair is a chair," Jaeger slapped his hand on the stuffed chair he was sitting on, "Then it's a chair."

"That's every bit as obvious and assumed as you implied it would be," Natsuna said, "How can that be something in question?"

"As a public speaker once said," Jaeger said, "'It takes a college education to be this stupid.' Not quite hitting the nail on the head, but the point is, it takes someone too full of abstract thinking, not sufficiently engaged with the real world, and insulated from real danger and suffering, to reach the level of disconnectedness where they engage in this level of existential angst. Extreme fringe cases aside, you don't get someone who actually has to worry about where their next meal, or their food _next month_ is coming from in any real way, questioning something that basic.

"The second rule is the more memorable, even if it is about as self-evident. 'Something cannot be both true and false at the same time.' Generally called the law of non-contradiction, if someone denies this, rational discourse with them is functionally impossible, as they can try to claim the positives of both a thing being and not being at the same time, should the fancy strike them."

Natsuna nodded, but did not further comment.

"The third rule of logic," Jaeger said, "Is the law of the excluded middle, which more or less restates and clarifies the law of non-contradiction. When a thing is either true or false, there is no gradiation between the two. Gravity is either a force, or not a force. It is not a force sometimes, or partially, it is a force. You can argue semantics of it affecting different things in different ways, but even the _variable effects_ of gravity are details of its nature as a fundamental force of the universe, and arguing the semantics still assumes it _exists._ The law of excluded middle is basically a preemptive counter-argument against people trying to claim 'sure that's true, but not when I _really_ don't want it to be.'"

"I've seen some people make arguments more or less along those lines," Natsuna said with a nod.

"Aye," Jaeger said, "Which leads me directly into the next element, something I didn't _really_ begin to grasp until I was in my twenties, and is absolutely essential to Critical Thinking, which I suppose we are now segueing into covering:

"People will prefer to believe that which fits their desires, over that which there is evidence of actually being true. I don't know if it's _possible_ for me to adequately emphasize this. You work in law enforcement; have you run into cases where someone in an abusive relationship is still actively trying to believe that their significant other really Loves them, even when they have bruises, perhaps broken bones, and piles of emotional abuse to prove otherwise?"

"I've not been directly responsible for such cases myself," Natsuna said, remembered sorrow crossing her face, "But I have had direct subordinates do so. They spoke a lot of pain, suffering, and people being self-destructive because they couldn't let go of something that was hurting them."

"Aye," Jaeger said, nodding his head, "Pretty lies are at least as destructive as any drug addiction. What's worse, being addicted to cocaine, or being convinced that the _next_ 'bad boy' boyfriend you get together with will be the one that fills the lonely hole in your heart?"

"The latter," Natsuna said immediately, "Most addicts know that their addiction is bad for them, they just lack the willpower to end it. Young girls who think their boyfriend is the only one who 'understands' them tend to fight any suggestion they're in an unhealthy relationship and resist outside help."

"Aye," Jaeger said, "The same is true of someone who believes that there are no negative consequences to sex, to someone who believes lottery tickets are a good investment, to someone who believes that their cult leader really will make the world a better place, even if they're demanding absurd amounts of money from their followers, to people who keep voting blatantly corrupt politicians into power, because not doing so again would be admitting to themselves that they bought the lies, rather than someone is lying about that politician's character now."

"All of these are things I've seen before," Natsuna said, "And I suspect you picked the examples out because you thought I would have. Where are you going with this?"

"Almost everybody who isn't already dedicated to some particular hardline ideology can follow, and happily agree with, things this far," Jaeger said, his expression shifting towards something a bit more grim, "Until whatever their personal hangup is gets touched on. I'll take something that's a political hot-topic in the US as an example: Abortion."

"That's no small issue," Natsuna said, raising an eyebrow again, "It's a hot enough political issue for Americans I've heard about your arguments without even trying to."

"Aye," Jaeger said, nodding his head, and leaning forward, "And the reason is damn simple; people are _very_ emotionally invested in the whole thing. The issue itself is _extremely_ simple. Either an unborn baby is a human being, or isn't. Law of non-contradiction. That fertilized egg developing into a human being has the same value and rights as a birthed human, true or false. If it's true, then the mother's right to decide not to have a baby ended when she decided to have sex, setting aside the extremely statistically rare instances of pregnancy caused by rape _for the moment_ , if it's false, then she can do whatever she wants with it, because _it has no rights._ "

Natsuna said nothing, simply watching Jaeger while she waited for him to continue.

"If the unborn baby _is_ a human being," Jaeger said, "Then the emotional investment in the issue is clear: People don't want murder to be committed. If the unborn baby is _not_ a human being, then the emotional investment is slightly less clear, but still pretty obvious: Those who already have had abortions don't want to think of themselves as having murdered a baby. Those who are pregnant and don't want to be don't want to have to deal with the responsibilities and difficulties involved in birthing then caring for a child. Those who make money off of abortions don't want their source of income to be cut off. Those who like being able to have casual sex with lesser consequences like having an escape route from the responsibilities that come with parenting. Does anything I'm saying sound egregiously illogical to you?"

"Far from it," Natsuna said, "It seems pretty straightforward. It does raise in my mind the interesting issue, that no law system I am aware of addresses the root definition of personhood, simply assumes it on the part of citizens, and the degree of responsibility shared between a minor and their guardian."

"Which gets into precisely the crux of philosophical monism versus dualism," Jaeger said, frustration beginning to seep into his tone, "Or 'naturalist' worldviews versus theistic and other supernatural-subscribing worldviews. In order for a human being to be in any meaningful way differentiated in value and rights from _any_ other lump of matter, one _must_ assume the existence of the supernatural. In order for a human being to be more than a conjunction of chemical processes, an elaborate biochemical computer where physical stimulus provokes neurological coding constructed from a genetic blueprint to engage in biochemical computing to determine output and thus action, there _must_ be something to a human that can be called a 'soul' or 'spirit.'

"Hold up," Natsuna said, "That was a _lot_ of complex terminology. Do you often talk like this?"

"It depends on how worked up I am," Jaeger replied beginning to fidget in his seat, "The pursuit of Truth matters more to me in life than _anything_ else, and I like to use precise language as I am capable."

"...So I see," Natsuna said, a curious expression passing onto her face, "So what you are saying is that if nothing supernatural exists, particularly as an aspect of human existence, then all humans are is very complex computers, and what our senses feed our brain gets processed by our brain-computer to determine output?"

"Yes," Jaeger said, nodding sharply.

"Then how do you explain the experience of thought?" Natsuna asked.

"I would say that the phenomena of thought itself proves the existence of the supernatural," Jaeger replied, leaning forward to the point where he was halfway out of his chair, "The concept of being able to _make a choice_ requires escape from the physical law of cause and effect. Barring the intervention of something outside the realm of the physical, inputting precisely the same stimulus into exactly the same system will get you the same result every single time. In other words, if you have no soul, you have no choice, because there was only one possible chain of biochemical responses possible within your body to any given set of stimulus, which could never have resulted in anything but the given response your body gave."

Jaeger paused, taking a deep breath, and staring, _almost_ but not quite _glaring_ into Natsuna's eyes.

"In short," Jaeger said, "If one accepts the principle that there is nothing but matter and energy to the universe, then the only difference between you and a lump of dirt, is biochemical complexity. There is no inherent worth, value, rights, or _anything_ else you possess that a lump of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and trace elements does not. Or more brutally put, you have no more worth than a pile of shit."

"That is _not_ something I can accept," Natsuna snapped, "I have lived my entire adult life defending the dignity and security of the people of Tokyo! I will not sit here and be told that my people are worth shit!"

" _If_ , I said," Jaeger replied, tight anger just barely seeping into his voice as his words quickened, " _If_ nothing exists beyond the physical. Once one accepts the existence of the _meta_ physical, however, the world begins to make rational sense once more. Humans are _clearly_ distinct not only from inanimate matter, but also from all other observed forms of life. We have the capacity for rational thought, to think creatively, to understand and express moral concepts, to recognize natural beauty, and create art that is such as well. These things make no sense as the expression of a purely deterministic biochemical computer, but make _perfect_ sense coming from a being of spirit housed in a body of flesh."

Jaeger leaned back in his seat, breathing deeply.

"The very nature of your response just now reflects what I said about emotional investment," Jaeger said, "You _believe_ in the value and worth of the people who you have spent your adult life serving. You _want_ them to have the value and worth you have treated them as having. You are emotionally invested in that being true. Where do you think that worth and value comes from?"

"It's intrinsic to being human," Natsuna replied promptly, "To being a thinking and emoting human being."

"It is because it is," Jaeger said, "That is a _claim_ , but does it add up with the rest of your worldview? What is mankind's origin? What is his ultimate destination? Is it because he thinks and emotes that man has value, or is it by these that we can _recognize_ he has value? Do they imbue value or merely _indicate_ it? Why would thinking and emoting imbue value if you believe that is the case?"

"Because people shouldn't suffer," Natsuna replied immediately, leaning forward as her own voice became a bit heated.

"I agree," Jaeger said with a sharp nod, "But _why?_ What differentiates lighting a man on fire, from lighting a man-sized lump of firewood on fire? A series of chemical interactions take place in both the man and the firewood; the man interprets it as pain, the firewood has no nervous system. So what? Are both just matter in the end, or is there something more to one of them?"

"...'First principles' you said earlier," Natsuna replied, "That's what you're getting at, isn't it? What are the basic assumptions I build the rest of my ideology off of?"

"Yes," Jaeger said arms flexing as his eyes blazed with passion, "It drives me _nuts_ how people just _don't care_ about developing a coherent worldview, _especially_ when they get on my case about some picky detail of day-to-day living. Why do you care so much about your physical appearance, or having your living space obsessively neat, when your moral system is incoherent, when you have no clue where life comes from, what happens when you'll die, whether _God is real_ , and what He is like?"

Natsuna became very quiet, leaning back in her chair and cupping her chin as she thought. Impatient, but forcing himself to give her time to think, Jaeger stood and started to pace around the small lounge.

"What do I care for the minutiae of running a police force," Natsuna eventually said, "If I do not understand the basis of a morality I instinctively understand to exist?"

" _Exactly,_ " Jaeger all but hissed, "There is _no point_ in arguing the semantics of a legal system, if you cannot ground it in a _moral_ system, and have some understanding of its origin and structure. What is the supreme ethic? If it's beauty, then more attractive people will get away with more, and one can argue that's how society works. If it's balance, then every crime must be punished in exact proportion. If it's 'Might makes right,' then the legal system is just the tool of the strong to implement their will upon the weak. What is the supreme ethic, Natsuna? What is the transcendent moral that all other things are subordinate to?"

"...I don't know," Natsuna admitted, "I'd never much thought about it before."

"Then I'd suggest you find out," Jaeger said, "I can't imagine living as a law enforcement officer without having some understanding of it."

"Now that you've raised the point," Natsuna replied, a wry grin spreading across her face, "I think that more aptly expresses what I've been struggling with. With my recent experienced, I don't think I can _continue_ living as a law enforcement officer without having some understanding of it. Having the functional existence of the supernatural, and so the soul, as many of my most trusted men _die…_ I find myself wishing I'd spent a course or two in college on philosophy, rather than just deciding 'Ethics and Procedures' was enough. However, there is also something I feel obliged to say to you in return."

"Feel free," Jaeger said, visibly calming a little as he scrubbed a hand through his hair, "My penchant for aggressive monologuing aside, I don't intend for this conversation to be one-sided."

"I've heard people talk like you do before," Natsuna said bluntly, "Some of them were on terror watchlists, and most of the rest were part of the coalition of nationalist-leaning politicians that most of my detractors in the Diet come from. Given your _considerable_ personal power, the fact that I'm not sure if it's even _possible_ to kill you, and my position and responsibilities, the way you speak has raised some concerns."

"What are you afraid I'll do?" Jaeger returned, just as bluntly.

"Right now," Natsuna said, "Nothing. It's not hard to see a lot of your passion comes from being an _idealist_ , but I've _seen_ what happens to idealists whose ideals fail them before. I don't want to see you changing like some of them did, both because of concern for you, and because of fear of what someone as capable as you would do under such circumstances."

Jaeger was quiet for a few moments as he considered his response.

"As much as I'd like to convince people I _can't_ be killed," he eventually said, "That's not actually true. And as to me turning into some sort of blood knight or homicidal killing machine; death first."

"Yours," Natsuna asked, staring Jaeger in the eye, her expression fierce, "Or someone else's?"

"Mine," Jaeger said with a grunt, scowling a bit, "And hard enough that it actually _sticks._ Now, is there anything else for the time being? I've got to go."

"Not for the time being," Natsuna said, shaking her head, "But next time we speak, expect me to have some pointed questions for you."

"Fair enough," Jaeger said with a shrug, "Drop me a line when you need some help again."

Then he disappeared.

[/spoiler]

((()))

"You really don't know how to talk to females," Blaze snarked at Jaeger as he hopped aboard the Cybertronian's latest vehicle form, "They want tales of kicking adventure, good jokes, and sweet nothings. Not recitations from philosophy textbooks."

"Maybe most," Jaeger replied, "But most women aren't the Superintendent-General of the TMPD. She has tens of thousands of people under her authority. She's more interested in getting things done. She has _responsibilities._ A lot more than a teen or twenty-something single in college or with a part-time job."

"Maybe she wants _both_ ," Blaze retorted, "But if I know _anything_ about females, its that _all_ of them want the sweet nothings."

Jaeger rolled his eyes as Blaze pulled into a parking garage, and started preparing to teleport.

((()))

Each of the Senshi experienced their first time arriving at Wild's as students in different ways. Makoto felt like she'd almost _come home_ ; the way the other girls looked at her, with analyzing then respectful eyes, the grace and discipline present in the bearing of the students, the lack of whispering about the muscles on her arms or her height.

Minako was excited; she'd dabbled with martial arts herself, and was quite fit. Being of a competitive nature, she was looking forward to the challenge of catching up with the other students, and seeing how the Korean education system compared to those of Japan and England.

Rei was slightly uncomfortable. She was used to a more _conservative_ learning environment, and had been attending the same school since she started her formal education; the unfamiliar nature of the environment was surprisingly disconcerting to her. She was glad, however, to be bringing friends _into_ the school with her, given how miserable her luck at making friends _at_ school had been thus far.

Ami felt a mixture between slight excitement, and being slightly jaded. She had changed schools multiple times through her academic career, not staying at any for more than a single year since third year of grade school. She had a hard time believing that Wild's would challenge her academically, but she hoped that she might actually be able to connect with more physically-oriented people after 'learning the basics.'

Usagi was still in a semi-conscious haze; the luxury of a car ride from Ami's mother allowing her to take a brief nap on the way to school, one she hadn't really recovered from.

((()))

 _I had forgotten how_ boring _school could be. Eighth grade was bad enough when I was just of above-average intelligence back on my home plane; being at literally the edge of supernatural intelligence made things_ much _worse, especially given that this was_ not _new material to me. At least the academic standards at Wilds' were high, and the 'study culture' of the students was pretty solid. Only a handful of students were more interested in the classwork than their various (mostly martial-arts related) extra-curriculars, but they were both diligent and efficient about working through it._

 _So, I spent most of the class practicing multi-tasking, by taking notes with two sets of hands. With my own hands, I wrote every odd word on my set of notes, with spaces for every even word. With the Creation-magic created body I controlled (sitting in a room in the apartment complex we had rented), I wrote the even words with spacing for the odd words left in. By the end of morning classes I was managing it pretty well, so long as I didn't try to do it with both sets of eyes open; doubled vision was harder to get used to than the other senses. Once the note-taking got boring I started practicing juggling._

 _Then lunch period began, and things got…_ hectic _._

((()))

"Heeellllooo!" A heavy-set brunette that had been sitting next to the new boy called, sliding her chair over next to his, "I'm Bora! Who are you?"

"I'm Haneul!" A skinnier brunette on his other side said as she slid her chair in to flank him on that side, "Nice to meet you!"

"I'm J. Gates," Jaeger replied, studying the two girls in turn, "It's nice to meet you; can I help either of you ladies with something?"

"A da-mph!" Haneul began, before being cut off by a taller blonde that had walked up behind her.

" _Slow down_ Haneul," She said sharply, "Don't you know what happened to Song when he started here? Show some respect! I'm Hyeon," she said, turning her attention to Jaeger, "What brings you to Korea?"

"What?" Jaeger said with a smile, assumed form's darker complexion, "I don't look like a local?"

A small chorus of giggles erupted around his seat, which had been _quite thoroughly_ surrounded by his female classmates.

"No," Hyeon said, smiling herself, "And Wild's usually doesn't get exchange students."

"My Aunt found work in the area," Jaeger said with a shrug, "She's a trauma surgeon who's been branching into genetic study lately, so one of the local universities probably has a good program for that."

"Ah!" Bora said, "Where are you actually from then?"

"I'm _from_ Puerto Rico," Jaeger said, "But I've moved around most of my life, so that doesn't mean a whole lot anymore."

"Didn't I see you with those new first-year girls during the preliminaries the other day?" One of the girls standing around his desk asked.

"Yes," Jaeger said with a nod, "They're friends, of a sort."

"'Of a sort'?" Another girl asked, "Is one of them your girlfriend?"

"No," Jaeger said, shaking his head, "'Of a sort' means they're sort of like younger sisters to me. Somewhat more complicated is my Aunt's adoptive daughter; she's a medical student at Seoul National University now, and I see her in a similar light-"

"Why do you see her as a younger sister if she's older than you?" Bora asked.

"Or is she just much smarter than you?" Haneul asked with a smirk.

"Neither," Jaeger said with a shrug, "Though she is quite intelligent. I've recently recovered from a head wound, and am only now continuing my interrupted education."

"A head wound?" Hyeon said eyes widened slightly in surprise, "What happened?"

"Someone shot me," Jaeger said, _almost_ maintaining a perfectly straight face, "And head wounds take a bit longer to recover from than most."

Stunned silence met _that_ revelation, and a fully-formed smile broke out on Jaeger's face while the girls glanced nervously back and forth between each other, trying to figure out how to respond.

"Don't worry about it," Jaeger said, gathering up the detritus of his lunch and smiling, "I'm fully recovered now; like I said my aunt is a trauma surgeon, she knows how to look out for lingering effects. Anyway, I saw the tournament preliminaries the other day, but I'm not familiar with what else is going on at Wild's. Care to tell me what's been happening on campus lately?"

"A bunch of thugs tried to storm the school during the preliminaries!" Bora immediately burst out, "They picked a fight with Queen and Moon Young!"

"...Are gangs that much of a problem here in Korea?" Jaeger asked.

"Not usually," Hyeon said with a shrug, relaxing a bit with the subject change, "But it's not like they stood a chance anyways. There are some thugs around, but generally none of them have guns. If any of them _had_ , the Wild's Guard would have taken care of them."

"Wild's Guard?" Jaeger asked.

"Some of the girls who graduate from this school," Hyeon said, "The ones who are going pro with martial arts, rather than just dedicated hobbyists, some of them Director Wild will train himself. They _never_ lose fights."

"So the school's founder is a bit of an 'ancient master' type?" Jaeger asked, "Like what you see in movies sometimes?"

"Sort of," Bora said with a shrug, "He's a westerner though, English I think. He keeps an office/arboretum on the grounds, so if you want to meet him, you can probably do it after school gets out."

"I'd be happy to show you where it is!" Haneul chirped, "I'm free after school today!"

"I think I'll take you up on that," Jaeger said with a gracious smile, more than one purpose behind his acceptance of the offer."

((()))

"Boy," Minako said as she looked across the cafeteria, "Jaeger is _popular_."

"Caitlyn's going to be mad," Usagi said with a giggle, "Think he'll go out with any of them?"

"Not a chance," Rei said, shaking her head before taking a sip of tea, "He'd consider it improper, given how much older he actually is. Can we talk about something other than boys?"

"Like what?" Minako said with a smirk, "You more interested in _girls?_ "

"Impressions of the various students so-ah." Rei was cut off by a polite cough from behind her.

"Excuse me," A cute young woman with pig tails and glasses said, "Could I join you?"

"Sure!" Usagi said, "I'm Usagi, and this is Rei, and Minako, and Ami, and Makoto! Who are you?"

"I am Lee Go Seul," the young woman said, smiling at everyone at the table as she took a seat next to Makoto, "I'm a freshman too, and Wild's can be a bit cliquey, so I thought I'd offer to show you around and answer any questions you all have."

"That's great!" Usagi chirped, "Who's the meanest teacher? The nicest? Are there any good arcades nearby? Good places for ice cream?"

"More importantly," Makoto said, cutting in before Usagi could bury the new girl, "How do I get a chance to get a good sparring match in with someone?"

"You're so lively!" Go Seul said with a smile, "I don't know the area very well yet, but my older sister is captain of the Wushu team, if you want to come with me we can ask her half of those questions after classes, and I'm sure she'd love to give you a sparring match with a freshman who clearly has some experience."

"What about the teachers?" Ami asked quietly.

"They're all pretty good," Go Seul said, "But honestly, none of them stick out in my mind as being memorably harsher or gentler than any of the others..."

((()))

"Twelve men to visit the moon through the entire course of the Space Program," one of the Americans muttered, "And we double that number in a single day."

"Well," Nephrite said with a smile, "If you count neither my prior visit, nor those already here."

"Were all the intermediary steps necessary?" The major in command of the strike team asked.

"I am a mage of great potence," Nephrite said with a shrug, "But I am not a god."

"...Right," the Major said, before shrugging (a move barely discernible through his space suit, "Let's move, Blue Team."

The white-clad strike team and Nephrite had 'ported in several kilometers from the Black Moon Clan's base, in order to avoid teleportation wards and minimize the chance of detection, and it took more than an hour, even in low gravity, to reach the final point of available cover before the base itself.

"There are a minimum of six hostiles," Nephrite informed them as they studied the improbably-positioned palace, sighting for preferable points of entry, "All of them powerful casters, the one dressed in white, and the second bearing a black hooded robe, are the most dangerous. If they call hordes of their golems to aid them, I should be able to deal with the hordes; can your team deal with the casters?"

"With two to one odds?" the Major asked rhetorically, "Not to mention preparation and strategic surprise on our side? We'd damn well better be able to."

"Good," Nephrite said with a nod, "If I am seriously injured, I will be forced to retreat; do not fear, however, I will return within two days nonetheless."

"Our spells and equipment should let us survive that long," the Major said with a nod, "Why are you repeating everything that was covered in the briefing?"

"Standard protocol before an assault," Nephrite said with a shrug, "Ensure all participants are on the same page. Is this not policy in your military?"

"It is," the Major said with a nod, looking over at one of his men who was making use of a series of hand signals, "And we've found our entry point. Let's move out."

((()))

When Jaeger and Haneul swung by the office of Charles Wilds, they discovered that it was unfortunately empty. So it was that, instead of meeting the Academy's founder and owner, the two ended up making small talk as they proceeded to the school's gate. Jaeger was readily aware that Haneul was keeping the pace as slow as she reasonably could, and was trying to solicit a date invitation from him, but he had other reasons for agreeing to spend some time alone with her.

Plans which Haneul began to cotton on to when they arrived at the gate, where Caitlyn was waiting to pick him up. Caitlyn was slightly above average by American standards in her 'normal' form; the disguise she had adopted put another inch or two onto her height, meaning she towered over Haneul, and was barely shorter than Jaeger's polynesian disguise.

"You're here early," Jaeger called as Caitlyn strolled over from the motorcycle she had been sitting on while she waited.

"College courses are easy on the hours," Caitlyn said with a shrug, "Even if they give too much homework. Who's the kid?"

"Haneul," Jaeger said, gesturing towards his classmate, who was bristling slightly at being called a 'kid, then towards Caitlyn, who looked faintly amused, "Meet my adoptive cousin, Caitlyn. Caitlyn, Haneul is one of my classmates; she kindly volunteered to show me to the Director's office today."

"Nice to meet you," Caitlyn said with a friendly smile, extending a hand towards the younger (and substantially smaller girl, "Thanks for helping my man around."

"...your man?" Haneul asked as she somewhat hesitantly shook Caitlyn's hand.

"Yup," Caitlyn's grin grew, gaining a bit of an edge as she did so, "I've been after him for oh, two or three years now. I'll get him to go on a date with me _eventually._ "

"...Is he really that stingy with dates?" Haneul asked, slightly horrified.

"I've had three girlfriends in the past," Jaeger said with a shrug, "I've been on one date."

Haneul winced.

"So," Caitlyn said with a grin, "Just to keep things simple, we have a bit of a policy. If you want to go out with _him_ ," Caitlyn jabbed a thumb towards Jaeger, "Then first, you need to beat _me_ ," Caitlyn turned her thumb towards herself, "In a sparring match. Pin or ring-out, nothing else is accepted, any form of martial art is permitted."

"... _Seriously?_ " Haneul asked, glancing back and forth between Jaeger and Caitlyn.

"Sure," Jaeger said with a shrug, "Caitlyn likes to fight, and it saves me the trouble of turning everyone down repeatedly."

"And when she loses?" Haneul asked.

" _If_ she loses," Jaeger said with a smile, "That'll mean someone is at least interesting enough to warrant one date. They'll probably lose interest in me after that anyways."

"You're a _boy_ attending _Wild's_ ," Hameul said with a bit of a smirk, "And unlike underclassman Song, you're perfectly comfortable here. You're also obviously not some kind of jerk and you've got a girl who's spent years chasing after you, so I really don't get why a girl _wouldn't_ want to spend more time with you."

Jaeger leaned back and _laughed._ It wasn't a harsh, or even a particularly _loud_ laugh, but it was very clearly a laugh directed at her statement nonetheless.

"I miss being that innocent," he said gently, turning to smile at Haneul, "I hope that you never have to learn why it isn't that simple."

"So do I," Caitlyn said with a grimace, before laying a hand on Jaeger's shoulder, "Come on J, Lynette's going to be waiting for us."

((()))

"So," Kimiko said as she sat down near Mamoru, a cup of tea in hand as she settled into one of the break room's comfortable chairs, "How'd you meet this 'aunt' of yours?"

"There was some sort of… fight?" Mamoru said, glancing up at Kimiko before turning his attention to his own beverage, "On one of the upper floors of an apartment block, and some windows were shattered. Some of the falling debris was falling towards a little girl, so I picked her up and hauled her away. Afterwards, the police couldn't identify her, or find any relatives, and she claimed she was my aunt. I'm not really sure how that's supposed to work."

"How heroic," Kimiko said with a smile, "Falling glass can be pretty dangerous; did you get hurt?"

"A few scrapes," Mamoru said, waving his hand dismissively, "Nothing serious. Do you know why Doctor Fujiwara is back early from her vacation?"

"Yes," Kimiko said, her smile fading a bit, "The cruise ship she was on got attacked. It was all pretty nasty; I wouldn't recommend bringing it up around her."

"Is that why there's security in the building?" Mamoru asked.

"Pretty much," Kimiko said, her smile fading altogether with a sigh, "She _is_ a cousin of the imperial family. I'm not sure why anybody would think going after her would accomplish anything in this modern era, but who can understand the mind of a terrorist? If they were sane, they wouldn't be terrorists."

"Have you ever been out of the country?" Mamoru asked curiously.

"No," Kimiko said, her smile returning a little, "Why do you ask?"

"There's a saying," he said, "I don't really agree with it, but after I spent some time on the continent, I understood it a bit better. 'One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.'"

"That sounds terrible," Kimiko said, "Why on earth would people think such things?"

"Because when you hate someone," Mamoru said with a shrug, "It's easy to sympathize with people who attack them. At least, that's the best I've been able to figure out. I'm becoming a doctor because I want to help people; I don't think violence is the way to solve societies problems."

"When did you decide you wanted to be a doctor?" Kimiko asked, setting aside her cup and leaning forward as she gave Mamoru her undivided attention.

"...Well," Mamoru began slowly, looking at Kimiko a bit oddly, "Not long after my parents died..."

((()))

A thundering explosion shattered the wall of Petz' bedchambers, and she lurched awake, clutching blankets to her chest as she stared at the ruins of the far side of her room. Bulky white figures began clambering into the room.

"Am I dreaming?" Petz wondered, blinking her eyes rapidly as she stared in confusion at the strange, monochrome humanoids.

"Saphir!" her sister's voice shouted from the adjoining bathroom, "You'd better not be using your experiments going wrong as an excuse to bother my sister again!"

Petz shouted back at her sister, trying to warn her, but discovered that someone had cast a spell of silence over her. It must have been a targeted rather than area spell, however, because a moment later when a part of the ceiling damaged by the blast collapsed to the ground with a thundering crash, it was _quite_ audible both to Petz, and her sister in the bathroom.

"SAPHIR!" Calavaras roared as she burst out of the bathroom, a towel around her body, a shower cap over the top of her head, a loofah in one hand and her other pointing violently towards…

"You're not Saphir," Calavaras said a bit sickly as her finger bumped into the white material of a space suit, "_ _ _"

" _WHAT,_ WOMAN?" Saphir bellowed as he burst in the front door to the suite just after Calavaras was struck by a silence spell herself, "Do you think I _LIKE_ working all- _those are **not** my golems_."

"No," Nephrite said with a smile as he stepped into the room behind another of the 'astronauts,' "They're some friends of mine from Earth. Today's lesson for you and your brother shall be on the tactical utility of _Surprise._ "

(((()))

"-And on a bizarre note," the news anchor said, her professionalism keeping her expression as level as ever, "Astronomers all over the world, amateurs as well as professionals, have reported a series of explosions in one section of the surface of the moon last night. They started around midnight, Greenwich Mean Time, and continued for a good half hour. No nation has yet claimed responsibility for these surprising lunar detonations, but accusations are flying about the Americans, Russians, or Chinese engaging in weapons testing..."

((()))

Author's Note: I keep feel like I've forgotten something with this story. Hopefully nothing important.


	11. Chapter 11

((()))

"Hey," Jae Gu called, "Gates, do you have a moment?"

"Sure," 'Gates' said, nodding for Caitlyn to precede him onward as he turned to look at the adolescent, "What's up?"

"...It's awkward," Jae Gu said, rubbing the back of his head and looking around to see if anyone was close enough to listen in, "Um, have you ever had two girls fighting over you?"

Gates blinked, his eyes widened for a moment, then he leaned forward to stare down at Jae Gu.

"Are you having me on?" he asked, his voice a mixture of curiosity and disbelief.

"...No?" Song said, worried he'd somehow caused offense.

"No, I haven't," Gates said, "But it looks like it might happen soon; a couple of the local girls seem like they want to try to get a date out of me."

"...Oh," Jae Gu said, confusion and bewilderment mixing on his face, "I guess you don't have any advice on what to do about it?"

"All kinds, actually," Gates said, "But it's probably better if you just come along when one of the girls here at the school actually sets up for the sparring match. I'll show you directly how I handle it, though no guarantees it'll be the best way; like I said, never done it before. If nothing else, you can learn what not to do if I screw things up."

"...Okay?" Jae Gu said, "I thought only _my_ life was getting this weird..."

"Kid," Gates said, laughing as he patted Jae Gu on the shoulder again, "You have _no_ idea."

"So I've found a job in the area that would make use of both our skills," Saeko said with some amusement, "It should also make transportation fairly easy."

"Oh?" Lynette said, looking up from the medical journal she was reading, "What would that be?"

"It seems like one of the local schools sacked their on-staff doctor," Saeko said, "Being a poor role-model to the students, or something like that, and they need a replacement pretty urgently."

"...It's Wild's, isn't it," Lynette said, rolling her eyes, "Do you know what happened?"

"Apparently some gang of thugs tried to cause trouble," Saeko said, "And the on-staff doctor was the closest thing to an authority figure available. She gave her approval to one of the students beating the thugs into submission, then tried to deny her own involvement when the principal found out, and leave the student to take the fall for things going too far."

"I could do something part-time," Lynette said, "But I'm quite serious about getting involved with research work, whether it's formally or informally."

"And I'm an Oncologist, not a sports or trauma specialist," Saeko said, "But they're looking for a general practitioner _and_ a Registered Nurse. I'm certain that if we offered to take both jobs between the two of us, but at the same pay-scale as a nurse and a less-experienced practitioner, they'd jump at the chance."

"Most likely," Lynette said with a nod, "And it's a school, so we can pick up students volunteering, doing job-study, or on punishment detail to take care of petty tasks. It's worth giving a try."

"You know," Caitlyn said, and Jaeger could hear the smirk in her voice even if he couldn't see it, "Usually the girl clings to the guy, not the other way around."

'Clinging' referring to Jaeger being seated behind her on the large motorcycle she was navigating through Seoul's heavy street traffic, his arms wrapped around her waist to keep him in place. For people of normal hearing, verbal communication in such circumstances would have required shouting, or communication equipment built into their helmets. Caitlyn was a werewolf, and Jaeger was a supernaturally empowered shapeshifting cat; the convenience of being able to talk _almost_ made up for the other unfortunate things they could hear.

"Usually," Jaeger said with a shrug that Caitlyn could feel, not see, _mostly_ covering the discomfort at such personal contact in his voice, "But it's probably better this way."

"Oh?" Caitlyn said, "How so?"

"I'm better off not being distracted by your chest pressing into my back," Jaeger said flatly.

"Most boys would consider that a positive, not a negative," Caitlyn laughed as she steered the motorcycle onto a residential road.

"I'm not married to you," Jaeger said bluntly, "I don't need my hormones doing stupid things because of provocative physical contact."

"I'd think you'd have realized by now," Caitlyn said, her laughter fading into a smile, as they began to decelerate on approach to the house Lynette had purchased, "I _don't_ mind."

" _I_ mind," Jaeger said fiercely "I'm not married to you; it's not my place to lust after your body."

"Lyn said that's what you'd say," Caitlyn said with a sigh as the bike came to a stop, and she dropped the kickstand, "I've always known you had lines, I didn't seriously think you took them that far."

"I've never kissed a girl," Jaeger said bluntly as they dismounted the bike, "Hand-holding, hugging, and non-sexual cuddling is about as far as it goes."

"Is this because you grew up in a muslim nation?" Caitlyn replied as they walked up to the front door.

"No," Jaeger said, shaking his head, "It's because I was convinced to make a promise when I was a naive teenager, and I try to keep my word. Even if I hadn't, that'd only change the kissing."

"Welcome to the Wushu team!" the upperclassman declared in Chinese martial arts robes, "I am Lee Seub Seul, team Captain; you're that group of new girls, the ones that came in with the second boy, right?"

"Mmhm!" Usagi said with a cheerful nod as she looked around the club room, "Go Seul said you know the area pretty well, do you know where a good arcade is? A good ice cream parlor? A nice park? A-"

"If you want answers to such irrelevant questions!" Seub Seul declared, "One of you must defeat me in combat! If you lose, you must join the team I captain!"

"Sounds like I'm up!" Makoto said, a fierce smile spreading across her face as she moved up around Usagi, "What are the rules?"

"Full contact," Seub replied immediately, reaching into an equipment bag to pull out two pairs of lightly padded gloves, "No grapples, to pin or concession," she tossed one of the pairs of gloves, staring up at Makoto as she removed her glasses and fished a set of contacts out of her robes, "Don't think that being huge is going to help you any."

"I've heard a lot of people say that before," Makoto said, studying the other girl intently as she started strapping on the gloves, "Usually only the dojo master and his top student are good enough to beat my reach advantage."

"Consider me the dojo master then," Seub retorted with a disdainful sniff as she began donning her own gloves, "You're terribly eager for a fight."

"I've heard you Wild's girls are supposed to be good," Makoto said, a smile spreading across her face, "I saw a lot of impressive fighters at the tournament, but this'll be my first chance to find out for myself."

"Still so eager after seeing the tournament?" Seub said, a scowl crossing her face, "Arrogant."

"Big sis," Go Seul said nervously, "Are you sure-"  
"Quiet!" Seub snapped, "Respect here in Wild's is earned in the ring! Don't expect to win, but if you impress me and the other club members, you'll be considered worth something around here!"

"Sounds good to me," Makoto said with a smirk, moving towards the middle of a loose ring the members of the Wushu club had formed.

"...What is this?" Jaeger asked, more than a little confused.

"Pizza," Caitlyn said with a shrug, dropping one of two boxes she was carrying onto Jaeger's lap, "Visitors with guest passes," she gestured to a small plastic card pinned to her shirt, "Are allowed on campus so long as they don't disturb students in their studies."

"...That doesn't really explain why you brought it here," Jaeger said as he flipped the box open and studied the pizza within.

"I wanted to see you," Caitlyn said as she began digging into her own pizza, wincing slightly as she did so, "...and thought you'd like some pizza."

Jaeger glanced up at her slightly pained expression, before pulling a piece out of his own box and giving it a try. He winced as well.

"...Sorry," Caitlyn said, blushing a bit in embarrassment, "Not what I was expecting."

"I guess Koreans don't usually make pizza quite the same way Americans do," Jaeger said with a faint smile as he set the box aside, "Did I ever tell you about the time I had pizza in Rome?"

"No," Caitlyn said, leaning back against one of the trees on the school grounds.

"Well," Jaeger said, "I was something like seven or eight years old when my family stopped in Rome with some of our friends during our annual trip back and forth from the Middle East, and..."

Caitlyn smiled as the story unfolded, but was careful to keep herself from trying to infringe on Jaeger's personal space.

Go Seub Seul had seen the calluses and small scars on the giant new girl's knuckles; combined with the way she moved and her muscle-tone, she expected a fighter who had training, but had relied on her superior size and reach to give her an advantage, rather than superior skill, particularly given she was larger than most _men._

The first blow of the match changed her mind _immediately._ The enormous girl was _fast_ , and _even_ _stronger_ than Seub had expected. The straight punch almost broke her guard all by itself, forcing Seub a half-step back. The next blow wasn't long in coming, and while it lacked the same raw _force_ as the first, it came as the first part of a flurry of lightning right jabs, and Seub _knew_ that without the gloves her forearms would be covered with bruises.

Normally, Seub would have tried to banter with, or critique the technique of a newcomer. Against the giant foreigner, she didn't dare waste her breath. The _instant_ that the flurry ended, Seub retaliated with a shout, leading with a sharp knee-thrust that was deflected by the taller girl's left arm, then attempted to trap the defending arm against her knee. The other girl responded by lurching forward and going for a full-up grapple, and Seub _twisted_ to get out, irritated that the giant apparently had experience with _that_ as well.

Dancing back out of grappling range, where her smaller size and lesser strength would be a _crushing_ disadvantage, Seub threw a roundhouse kick, and grunted slightly in satisfaction as the other girl _finally_ backed off, for the first time since the match had begun. Seub tried a snap-kick, and the other girl juked out of the way, backing off again, before bouncing back in to throw a few more jabs. Seub ducked low, dropping into a spin-kick, one the larger girl danced back away from again.

"No kicks of your own?" Seub asked sharply as she spun back up into a high guard.

"You're not wearing any protective equipment," Makoto replied, taking a couple steps back and keeping her guard up, "My kicks break bones, and I'm pretty sure an elbow drop in response to your spin-kick would be frowned on too."

"You're good," Seub said, nodding respectfully, then stepping back and bowing to her opponent, "Far too good to try for a point match without proper equipment, as you have noted. You have my respect, and the Wushu club will be happy to have you."

"I might join," Makoto said, "How-"

"That was so cool!" Usagi burst in, "But can you tell us where the closest arcade is now?"

Lee Go Seul burst into laughter.

Consciousness came slowly. A small, vaguely-cognizant part of her brain said that she should be in a terrible lot of pain, yet she wasn't. More than anything else, she felt _weak;_ as her awareness of the world around her gradually solidified, she could tell that she was in a bed, but everything felt _heavy._ Her arms didn't _hurt_ , but they felt like they weighed twice as much as they usually did, any form of movement being difficult, and her fingers fumbling about as she tried to grip the blanket laid over her.

As grogginess faded, her fine control improved, even if the feeling of weight remained, and she pulled the blanket down. Shortly after that, it occurred to her that the reason she couldn't _see_ was because her eyes were closed, not because of the blanket laid over her, which had never covered her head in the first place. Her eyelids felt heavy too, and even her _eyes_ somehow felt heavy, but she still forced them open.

A pleasantly dim room met her eyes; it took a few seconds to focus enough to see anything clearly, but it looked like she was in some sort of single bedroom, one with an odd bed. There was an odd band wrapped around her wrist, with a wire leading to to a machine that had lines running across its surface. Her _scarred_ wrist. She shivered as she inspected the tough, twisted skin that covered much of her arm, and as she felt around, everywhere else memories of pain placed the burns on her body.

The door to the room opened, and a smiling woman who looked strangely weathered entered, speaking words she didn't understand. She bustled over to check on the machine, pausing a moment before trying different words, then another different set, and then-

"Good morning," she said in an ancient accent, "How do you feel?"

"Tired," she replied, "Heavy. Where am I?"

"Seoul, Korea," the woman replied, "Does that mean anything to you?"

"...I know where Korea is?" the girl said hesitantly.

"Better than nothing," the woman said with an encouraging smile, "Where are you from?"

"...I'm not sure if I should say," she said quietly.

"I suppose it's not surprising you're feeling cautious," the woman said with an understanding nod, "I'm Lynette, a doctor. Can you give me your name?"

"...I don't know if I should give you that either," she said hesitantly.

"That _is_ a bit awkward," Lynette said, "Maybe you'll feel a bit more trusting after you've met some of the other girls. They're at school now, but they should be home in a few hours. I'll bring you some lunch in the meantime, and we'll see if you handle solid food, okay?"

She nodded slowly in response.

"Again?" Jaeger said, raising an eyebrow as Caitlyn arrived with a single, exceedingly large pizza box.

"Yup," she said with a smile, "Though this place _does_ make pizza like Americans do; 'Chicago-style' specifically."

She opened the box, and revealed a somewhat impressively deep-crusted pizza, one piece of which was already missing.

"I see," Jaeger said, returning her smile, before reaching in for a piece of pizza.

Part of Caitlyn said that the appropriate thing to do here would be to demand a 'fee' of a kiss in exchange for some pizza; she firmly took the part of her informed by chick flicks and romance novels, and sat on it.

"So," she said, "Any other interesting stories about pizza around the world?"

"...A few?" Jaeger said, holding his hand over his mouth as he spoke through a half-mouthful of pizza, "None so interesting as the Rome story. I mean, I remember that I thought pizza in England was stupidly expensive, even when I was...nine years old? Maybe Eight? Not sure anymore."

"So tell me about it," Caitlyn said as she grabbed a second slice for herself.

"Well, for starters," Jaeger said, "It was the nineties in my world, probably actually about the same date as now in this one, and the price was higher in _pounds_ than I was used to seeing in _dollars._.."

Makoto was used to other people trying to force her into a grapple during spars; she was just used to it being _boys_ , not girls. Especially not a girl who was actually _heavier_ than her, and given the captain of the Wrestling team, Jung-Hee, was substantially _shorter_ than her, that meant the girl had a _lot_ more muscle. Considering she'd started a match with the _wrestling team_ , she really should have expected it, but like anybody else, she wasn't immune to overconfidence.

The first few seconds of the spar were about what was expected; a few jabs back and forth to test each others' defenses, then a bit more aggression as both of them maneuvered for advantage. Unfortunately for Makoto, what had worked against Seub _didn't_ work against Jung-Hee. When Makoto moved into an aggressive flurry of jabs, Jung-Hee took the second blow in the series on her forearm in exchange for trapping the arm, then pulling Makoto into a proper grapple.

The two of them thrashed around on the ground, maneuvering for position for long seconds, and to her considerable frustration, Makoto found herself unable to take control of the grapple, and was barely able to break free, rolling back and to her feet as she disengaged.

"You're good," Jung-Hee said with a nod, breathing hard as she pulled herself to her feet, keeping her eyes on Makoto's center of mass, "I can tell you're used to wrestling with people weaker than you. We'd be happy to have you on the team."

"...I think I could actually learn something here," Makoto said with a nod, "But I don't think any of my friends are big enough or have enough dedication to bulk up enough to thrive here. I'll probably end up working with a team with a softer form."

"Feel free to change your mind," Jung-Hee said with a shrug, "Look out for Dal-Dal on the Tae Kwon Do team though, she tends to take taller girls as an insult."

Makoto gave the captain an odd look, but nodded.

"Well _that_ went FUBAR," Revere grunted after the post-op debrief was completed, leaning back in his chair at one end of the table, "Something that was expected with an op like this, but I'd hoped to nail at least _one_ with the element of surprise."

"I must confess," Nephrite said from the far end of the table, shrugging slightly as he spoke, "They were more capable than I had expected. Still, they were clearly unaccustomed to waging any form of warfare that was not entirely on their own terms, which makes this very much a functional win."

Revere studied the other man for a few long seconds, before nodding himself in turn.

"We don't have the manpower to track them down right now," he said, "But in a month, once we've finished recovering personnel lost to the Borneo event, that'll have completely changed. Worse for them, they're now within reach of _any_ of the factions on Earth they've pissed off. You expected this from the beginning."

"I expected _some_ survivors to make it back to Earth," Nephrite replied with a smile, "But I _was_ hoping we would capture or kill the majority of them. Their vizier, 'wiseman,' was far more powerful than I had expected. As your men have said, he has most likely made pacts with dark powers. I'll be treating him as the primary threat; without his influence, the others may be reasoned into surrendering, though _may_ is the correct word."

"I'll pass your summation of the situation on to the Joint Chiefs," Revere said with a nod, "I expect we'll be working together again in the near future."

"In the future," Nephrite said with a nod, "Though likely not so 'near.' I have a kingdom to run, after all. Speaking of which, I must excuse myself to see what foolishness my subjects have attempted while not under my direct eye."

"Company this time?" Caitlyn asked as she approached the tree Jaeger was seated beneath with another pizza box, along with three Korean girls, one of which was blonde.

"What can I say?" Jaeger said with a shrug, "They followed me from class. You've already met Haneul," he gestured to the skinny brunette, before pointing to the more heavy-set one, "This is Bora, and the blonde is Hyeon. This is Caitlyn, my sort-of-adoptive cousin."

"She's the one you have to fight if you want a date," Haneul chipped in 'helpfully.'

"Is she serious?" Bora asked, sizing up Caitlyn, before looking at Jaeger.

Jaeger just nodded, his mouth full of pizza.

"Right," Haneul said, "When would you be open for scheduling a match?"

"All of my classes are morning classes," Caitlyn said with a shrug, "So any time in the afternoon."

"How about today, after school?" Haneul said with a grin.

Jaeger covered his eyes with his hand, glad that his superior control over his physiology allowed him to prevent himself from blushing manually.

"If you think this is bad," Hyeon said with an audible smile, "You should have seen what poor Song had to deal with when he started here. He got _mobbed._ "

"I need to extend the poor boy my sympathies," Jaeger said, feeling a bit bleak, "I hadn't _seriously_ expected anyone to take Caitlyn up on the challenge."

"This is _Wild's,_ " Hyeon said with a laugh, "We're _always_ serious about fighting here."

"Great," Jaeger said, scrubbing a hand over his face, "Bora, Hyeon, would one of you two grab Jae Gu Song? He should probably see this."

Instinct _screamed_ at Makoto, and she _hurled_ herself backwards, sparing no thought to counterattack, simply to _getting out of the way._ A foot thundered through the space her head had occupied a fraction of a second earlier, displaced air brushing against her skin as she turned her desperate evasion into a backwards somersault, dropping back into as low a guard as she could reasonably manage once she was back on her feet, wary of another kick from the short cat-eared girl in front of her.

"Hah!" Choi Dal-Dal said with a smirk, laying a hand on her cocked hip, "You're pretty sharp for a freshman! Where'd you learn?"

"All over the place," Makoto said warily, "A few sensei, mostly on the street. What about you?"

"My dad," Dal-Dal said with a shrug, turning to look at the other girls who'd come to visit her club with the freakishly-tall girl, "It doesn't look like any of the rest of them are any good, except maybe the blonde."

"My name is Minnie," 'the blonde' said, rolling her eyes, "But I've been going by Minako. I've got a bit of experience, but why would I want to learn from a shrimp like you?"

Every member of the club within earshot gasped, and Dal-Dal's expression turned thunderous as she started advancing on Minako. Minako tensed, Usagi gasped, and Makoto stepped forward to put a hand on Dal-Dal's shoulder, causing the tiny club captain to stop and grab her hand.

"We're leaving," Makoto said, turning her head towards the other Senshi, but keeping her eyes on Dal-Dal, "You don't insult a sensei in her own dojo."

Minako opened her mouth to respond, thought for a moment, closed it, and turned to leave. The club room was silent as the group of new girls filed out, and closed the door behind them.

"You also don't try to learn under a teacher with little self-control," Makoto said quietly, "Tae Kwan Do is good for girls, strong kicks and all, but there'll be options with better teachers."

"What you're trying to do is at _least_ as old as the Roman Empire," Kazinski said bluntly.

"Perhaps," the American officer (who still had not given his name) said, "But like most old tricks, they're in the book because they work."

"A lot less well when the subject knows what they're doing," Kazinski retorted, "I _know_ you're only going to give me the negatives, skip over the positives, make things sound worse than they actually are."

"Maybe," the American said with a faint grin, "Maybe not. So, if you know this trick so well, what's the next part of the plan?"

"Put me in a nice room that's still a cell," Kazinski replied, "Treat me well, give me time to think about what you've said, and keep applying light pressure until Stockholm sets in, or it's clear it won't work."

"Wrong," the American said, his grin growing into a smirk, "Next we hand you back over to the Praetorians. After all, you might have fallen into our custody, but none of the people you picked a fight with were _us_ , and _you personally_ didn't kill any of our allies either. Besides, the Praetorians and us have a common enemy right now, so we're at least sort of friends, hey?"

"...That's _fiendish_ ," Kazinski said with a scowl.

"And it's guaranteed to work!" the American retorted with a grin, before reaching over to remove Kazinski's power-damping handcuffs, "Come on, it's only an hour's ride to the Italian Embassy."

"This is a pretty sweet setup," Caitlyn said as she looked around the fighting ring, "And you're just allowed to walk in and use it?"

"Pretty much," Haneul said with a shrug, "Open use for two hours after school is out of session; the bracketed competitors of the Wild's Tournament even get to use the _main_ rings if they want to. How do we do this?"

"Any style or technique that's not designed to cripple or kill goes," Jaeger said, "I'll look poorly on bad sportsmanship. Aside from that, once you're both in the ring and I say go, it doesn't end until somebody concedes or is pinned. Given this is a _friendly_ spar, I should _not_ be seeing knockouts, got it?"

"Yep," Caitlyn said, before vaulting over the ropes on the edge of the ring, landing in a crouch and promptly beginning to remove her shoes, "So, what do you practice?"

"Some Kempo, some Boxing, some Shotokan," Haneul said with a shrug, opting to take a more subdued entrance into the ring by climbing between the ropes, and proceeding to remove her shoes as well, "How 'bout you?"

"Muay Thai," Caitlyn said with a grin, before kicking her shoes (with socks stuffed into them) out of the ring, then standing fully upright, towering over the younger girl, and dropping into a power-oriented stance.

"Hey!" Hyeon called as she and Bora belated entered the room, "No fighting without at least light gloves!"

So saying, she tossed two pairs of gloves into the ring, red for Haneul, blue for Caitlyn. Caitlyn shrugged and pulled the gloves on, waiting for her opponent to finish with her shoes before doing likewise.

"One last question before we get started," Caitlyn said, her tone more serious, "How seriously do you want me to come at you?"

"Nothing less than your best," Haneul said as she straightened up, pulling her own pair of padded gloves on, "Unless you're teaching, it's disrespectful to your opponent to toy with them."

"Right then," Caitlyn said, rolling her shoulders as she dropped back into her power stance just out of striking reach of the younger girl, "Ready?"

"Ready," Haneul said after dropping into a more balanced stance of her own.

"Well then," Jaeger said, standing on the edge of the ring, "Please don't hurt each other too badly. _Fight._ "

Caitlyn immediately slid forward and lashed out with her right fist; Haneul, expecting the blow, deftly parried and lashed out with her elbow in response. Caitlyn tried to sidestep the blow, but caught part of it on her forearm, before dancing out of range.

Both spent a moment sizing each other up again, before advancing on each other, when Caitlyn _moved_. Displaying a speed that made most of the observer's eyes pop wide open, the tall American slammed a fist between Haneul's guard, directly into her abdomen.

Displaying a fortitude that shocked _Caitlyn_ , Haneul ignored the blow and stepped forward, roaring in determination as she lashed out with a left jab, clipping the taller girl's ribs as she danced out of the way again, though the blow lacked any real force.

A fourth exchange of blows resulted in a similar lack of decisiveness, Haneul moving sharply in defense, Caitlyn twisting out of the way of the Korean girl's counterattack.

Then Caitlyn's arm _moved_ again; Haneul moved sharply to counter, and was _almost_ fast enough. _Almost_ wasn't enough, even if she deflected _most_ of the force of the blow. Caitlyn's fist struck Haneul's solar plexus, and the shorter girl collapsed to the floor of the ring, gasping as her solar plexus and diaphragm warred with each other and her need to breathe.

" _Damn_ girl," Caitlyn said, breathing hard as she dropped down to help Haneul roll over, wary of an attempt to grapple even with the Korean girl in clear pain, "You are _tough_ for a high schooler."

"Where did you learn to _hit_ like that?" Haneul gasped, tears in her eyes as she was rolled onto her back.

Caitlyn said nothing, but turned and looked at Jaeger.

"Really?" Bora asked, as she glanced back and forth between Jaeger and Caitlyn

"Yes," Jaeger said, "I taught her, a couple years ago. How much do you want to tell them, Caitlyn?"

Caitlyn's eyes shifted around to each of the different girls in turn, studying their expressions, their body language, and noting more than anything, their youth.

"They don't need to hear about it at this age," She eventually said, her voice soft, "Especially in a place like this."

"Yeah," Jaeger said, nodding his head and sighing, before turning to face the other two Korean girls in the room, "You're probably right about that. Unless one of the other two of you wants to throw down with Cait, show's over."

Bora looked thoughtful for a moment, but ultimately shook her head.

"See you ladies next week then," Jaeger said, reaching down to grab Caitlyn's shoes, and tossing them to the girl before leaving the room.

"You've never seen Capoeira before, have you?" the captain of said martial arts club, a girl almost as tall as Makoto, said as the Senshi watched the rest of the club practice.

"Are they dancing, or fighting?" Usagi asked curiously.

"Both," the captain said, "I'm Min-Su; Capoeira is one of the schools Charles Wild didn't bring here himself. It's Brazilian, and originated amongst escaped slaves centuries ago, it's said it was disguised as a dance so that the slavers wouldn't realize slaves were learning how to fight."

"It's so graceful!" Usagi said brightly, "Can you use it at a proper dance?"

"Hah!" Min-Su barked, "Maybe here at Wild's, but not at anything formal. It's practiced with a partner sometimes, but they have to be a Capoeirista as well, or they'll probably get hurt. It's not like other dances, where an experienced dancer can lead a rookie through it. Depending on the Mestre whose teachings you follow, there's more emphasis on the dance, the acrobatics, or the fight."

"It looks _very_ high-energy," Makoto noted, "Lots of emphasis on kicks and tumbles."

"More than most martial arts," Min-Su said with a nod, "To become skilled, one must also become _very_ fit, particularly for endurance and balance."

"How hard is the initial learning curve?" Makoto asked.

Min-Su looked at Makoto, then briefly inspected each of the other Senshi.

"You and the blonde could probably learn without too much trouble," Min-Su said, "The others look like they'd have to get into shape before they could really learn anything."

Makoto turned and looked at the other Senshi for a few seconds, considering what she'd learned from sharing living space with them for a few weeks.

"Maybe we'll try next semester," Makoto said, sighing, "I think we'll have to start with something a little more basic."

"Hey," Lynette said tiredly, opening her eyes as Caitlyn entered her room, "Can't sleep?"

Caitlyn shook her head, sweeping a glance over her adopted mother's modest bedroom. Lynette had never been much of one for elaborate décor; her room held an (occupied) bed, a mid-sized desk, two chairs, and a nightstand. What little it held by way of furniture, however, was by and large made up for by the wildly clashing color scheme; the bedding was a sombre mixture of dark blue and gray, the nightstand likewise, while the desk and chairs were bright pastel colors. It was about what Caitlyn expected of the middle-aged doctor.

"Someone actually took us up on the 'fight me to date John' thing," Caitlyn said, her voice low as she strode over to one of the chairs and sat, "And going by her friends' attitudes, it looks like a lot more are likely to try it."

"Worried you'll lose?" Lynette asked, pulling her pillows together to prop her head up, so that she could face the younger woman more easily.

"A little," Caitlyn said with a shrug, "But not particularly. You were right about the way to try to approach Jaeger; there are a lot of pretty girls at that school, and a fair portion of them are pretty strong, both in will and in body, but just trying to date him is pretty pointless, especially when he'd only do it out of obligation."

"What has you worried then?" Lynette asked, pulling one of her arms up out from beneath her blankets to rub a little sleep out of one eye.

"The girls at Wild's are sharp," Caitlyn said quietly, "They indirectly asked why I learned to fight, fight for _real_ , not for sport competitions or the like."

"And now you're thinking about Chicago again," Lynette said, her voice gentle.

"And now I'm thinking about Chicago again," Caitlyn said with a sigh, staring down at her hands, the low light little impediment to her eyes.

"Have you talked with Jaeger about it?" Lynette asked, beginning to move out from beneath her covers for the first time as she sat up and stretched a little.

Caitlyn shook her head.

"Chicago wasn't a happy place for either of us," Lynette said with a sigh, "Though for very different reasons. Have you thought about what Jaeger's time there was like?"

"A bit," Caitlyn said quietly, "It's a bit easier for me to get some understanding of what things must have been like for him, after our time in the barrier world. Do you think I should talk to him about it?"

"Maybe," Lynette said, getting out of her bed and walking over to her daughter, "What I think he really needs to talk about, is how he's been coping with his time in _this_ world. When he went to Chicago, at least he was still _human_. We still don't even know why his base form is now a _cat._ "

Caitlyn looked up at her new mother, pain in her eyes, and nodded.

"Come on," Lynette said, pulling her daughter up out of the chair, and then into a hug, "Let's get you some sleep, then you can go find Jaeger before school in the morning."

"Hey!" Moon Young greeted cheerfully as the Senshi filed in, "Welcome to the Boxing club! You're the new girls on campus, right?"

"Yeah!" Usagi said, "Makoto's been taking us around to check out the clubs; I'm Usagi, pleased to meet you!"

"I'm Moon Young," Moon Young said, "I'm the club captain; any of you already know how to Box?"

"I'm Makoto, and I've had some experience," Makoto said.

"I learned a _little_ bit back home!" Minako said brightly, her affected British accent showing, "I'm Minnie."

Moon Young waited for a moment for the other two to introduce themselves, then stepped forward and offered her hand to shake when they didn't take the initiative.

"I've been going by Rei," Rei said, taking the hand and shaking it, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"I'm Amelia," Amy said, "You can call me Ami. You're the first club captain to take interest in meeting those of us who do not already practice."

"Weird," Moon Young said, tilting her head a bit and tucking her hands into her jacket pockets as she looked down at Ami, "You'd think they'd be more interested in recruiting. Anyway! Welcome to the Boxing Club, you here to try out?"

"I'm here to find someone I'd trust to teach my friends," Makoto said, nodding towards the other Senshi, "Particularly, to teach a group of _novices_."

"Oh ho?" Moon Young said, stepping up to Makoto, who was perhaps an inch taller than her, and smiling, "What do you lot have that'd be worth training three people up from scratch? It takes a lot to get to the top."

"...I'm not expecting you to get them to the _top_ ," Makoto said, looking at Moon Young, "I just want them to learn how to _defend themselves._ "

"Most girls around here want to be at the top by their third year," Moon Young said, stepping around Makoto, "Why wouldn't you lot?"

"We don't know if we'll _be_ here for more than one year," Rei cut in sharply, "And most of us are here more for the academic program than the physical. Makoto is the only one among us who is very enthusiastic about that part of this school."

" _Weird_ ," Moon Young reiterated, drawing out the word with a chuckle, "So _you-_ " she turned to Makoto again, "Wouldn't be upset if I pawned this lot off on my underclassmen to learn the basics?"

"Depends on what kind of teaching you allow here," Makoto said, "Who would you have teaching them?"

"...Probably Jae-Gu," Moon Young said, her grin growing, "He could do with a reminder of how far he's come."

"We'll learn here!" Usagi and Minako said simultaneously, and Makoto groaned, palming her face while Moon Young laughed.

((()))

"She'll live," Saphir said with a grunt as he stepped out of the cave they had sequestered themselves in, "And I have eased most of her pain. I am at the limit of my abilities however; we require the services of a fully trained healer."

Demande frowned, but said nothing, continuing to glare out over the desert surrounding the small rock outcropping they were holed up in.

"You could not have known what Nephrite would do," Saphir said, sighing as he stepped up beside his brother, "None of us expected this."

"I could not have _known_ what he _would_ do," Demande replied shortly, "But I _should_ have known what he was _capable_ of. He presented no reason to abort our mission, but once it was clearly we were to be enemies, I should have looked into what he was capable of. We already _knew_ he could reach our base on the moon; we had no reason not to think he would bring others."

"It _still_ beggars the imagination," Saphir said, shaking his head and sighing, "The amount of energy consumed to move oneself such a distance is not inconsequential; to move _dozens_ of men? It should have taken him _weeks_ to accomplish such, not hours. And he is _also_ a skilled battlemage! _None_ of us pierced his barriers!"

"That is more because his men protected him," Demande said, gesturing dismissively, "And they were wise to do so. If we had captured or slain him, they would have been trapped and at our mercy. No, they showed _far_ more tactical acumen than we did. I thought it nothing more than a taunt, when he claimed he would school me in the ways of war; now I know it was a taunt, a promise, and true at both as well."

"...What now?" Saphir asked hesitantly, "Do we prepare for him to strike again?"

"We post a watch," Demande said, sighing again, "One large enough to cover our entire perimeter, as we should have done on the moon. In the meantime, we will rebuild our force of droids, and I will send out Esmeraude and Rubeus, _separately_ , to move incognito through current Earth society, and gather what information they can, particularly in regards to a healer."

"I shall begin gathering materials to replenish the ranks at once," Saphir said with a respectful nod, before turning back into the cave, "Do get some rest."

"I will," Demande said, "Don't overwork yourself."

Saphir just laughed, if a bit bleakly, as he moved back underground.

"And I," Demande said once his brother was out of earshot, a furious scowl crossing his face, "Will have _words_ with Wiseman."

((()))


	12. Chapter 12

((()))

"So," Hyeon said as she pulled up a seat beside Jaeger for lunch, "How serious is the whole 'no date' thing now that Haneul lost?"

"Pretty serious," Jaeger said, raising an eyebrow at her, "Keeping myself from getting swarmed with unwanted attention was the whole point."

Hyeon glanced across the schoolyard, to where Bora and Haneul were trying (and failing) to look like they weren't watching Hyeon and Jaeger's conversation. Jaeger managed to hide his smile well enough that they didn't notice, but not well enough to keep Hyeon from noticing when she looked back.

"Are," She asked hesitantly after a long moment's thought, "Are you homosexual?"

Jaeger snorted, then coughed, turning to look at Hyeon with a bit of shock, before shaking his head.

"No," he said, "I'm not homosexual; why is it so hard to believe I'm not interested in a relationship with most girls?"

"None of the girls here are 'most girls,'" Hyeon said with a snort, " _Any_ girl at Wild's is smart, disciplined, and strong. Haneul is also really pretty, and your adoptive cousin even more so, if you go for the more muscular type. _Most_ of the girls at Wild's are really pretty, and your 'cousin' is also quite clearly smart, since she's going to University, almost scary-strong, obviously has a lot of respect for you, and she's _really_ _cool_ , motorcycle and everything. If _nobody_ here is doing it for you, you're probably gay and haven't realized it yet. Or you're lying to me about that."

"...Right, High School thinking," Jaeger said with a sigh, leaning back against the tree he was eating under, and closing his eyes for a moment before he offered a more articulate response.

"Humans are wired to find healthy bodies attractive," Jaeger continued, "Strong secondary sexual characteristics as well. 'Prominent curves' in a woman, to put it politely, and a powerful physique in a man. In the last decade or few, western society has also been over-emphasizing excessive slenderness in women; as best I can tell that's a reflection of both scarcity being desirable, and most women would need surgery to be _that_ thin regardless of their habits, and attempting to appeal to the male protective instinct; a woman who's a delicate little slip of a thing pokes that instinct pretty directly. "

Jaeger sat up straight again, and opened his eyes to stare directly into Hyeon's.

"By both subjective and objective standards," he said, "You are _quite_ attractive. So, as you said, are pretty much all of the girls at Wild's, my cousin, and a number of other women I've known. That's not what I look for primarily in a woman, though having it too would be a nice bonus."

"...Thanks?" Hyeon replied, a bit caught off-guard by the turnaround in the course of the conversation, "What _are_ you looking for in a woman then?"

"I'll get to that in a minute," Jaeger said, raising a finger, before pushing onward, "Intelligence is a desirable trait in a mate for a variety of reasons. Contrary to what some people would like to think, there _is_ a genetic element to IQ, and arguably more important is a spouse who _values_ intelligence is also quite likely to provide the 'nurture' part of encouraging intellectual development in a child. Intelligence has been a more important means to success than muscle for a lot longer than most people think, but in this budding information age, that's more true than ever. Who do you think is likely to be more successful in life, a diligent student with scores at the top of the class, or a diligent athlete, with an athletic performance near the top of the school?"

"In most schools, the student, I guess," Hyeon replied.

"Quite," Jaeger said with a nod, "Having _both_ though, is something special. _Very_ few people are strongly talented in both physical and mental pursuits, and while it certainly takes _some_ work ethic, developing your abilities in a field that comes naturally to you is nowhere near as difficult as pushing yourself to excel in a field that you're average at by nature. That shows _discipline_ , something that I suspect you'd tell me all girls at Wild's possess considerable quantities of."

Hyeon nodded.

"So," Jaeger said, leaning back again, "Physical appearance, health and capacity, as well as mental capabilities. Three primary traits that are fairly easily looked for, with self-discipline thrown in as a fourth. How important would you rate these things, as qualities you wanted in a mate?"

"Pretty high for the last two," Hyeon said, then shrugged, "And if I'm honest, I want a decent-looking guy too."

"Nothing wrong with wanting a decent-looking mate," Jaeger said with a shrug, "But speaking with a few more years of experience than you have, you're better off _completely ignoring_ appearance when deciding who you want to _get to know_. This is _particularly_ true in high school; depending on ethnicity and genetics within their ethnic heritage, well, some boys start shaving at twelve, some men don't start shaving regularly until they're well-into their twenties. Even if you're shallow enough to consider their looks a deal-breaker after you've gotten to know their character and capabilities, a man may look very different at twenty than he did as a boy at fifteen."

"Fair enough," Hyeon said with a shrug, "I'd like a boyfriend, but I'm not one of those boy-crazy girls who wants to marry as soon as she graduates. I can wait."

"Getting back on track though," Jaeger said, "You said you'd rate all these things as pretty important. How important do you think I'd rate them?"

"Since you went and explained them all to me," Hyeon said, "I'd say you hold them to be pretty important too."

"You'd be wrong," Jaeger said, leaning forward again, his posture, tone, and expression all becoming quite a bit more aggressive, "Aside from character, they're third-tier at most. First, I care about who God is in that person's life."

"...What?" Hyeon said, off-put as much by the sharp conversational course-change as by the change in Jaeger's demeanor, "When did this get all religious?"

"Not religious in the sense that you're thinking," Jaeger replied immediately, shaking his head sharply, "Though it touches on that. For some men, especially teenage fools, their god is their sex drive. For some girls, their god is their social standing, and what they want from a romance is something that builds that up even further. For some people, their god is their career, or money, or their hobby, or _power._ What is _your_ god, Hyeon?"

Hyeon fumbled for words for a few moments, staring at Jaeger, thoroughly bewildered and uncertain how to respond, before the older student sighed and leaned back against the tree again, the sudden intensity fading as quickly as it had come.

"You don't need to give me an answer," Jaeger said, his voice a bit melancholy, "But you certainly owe yourself one, and the sooner in life you figure that out, the better for you it is."

"...Okay?" Hyeon said, a bit weirded out by Jaeger's mood swings.

Awkward silence reigned between them for a half-minute or more, neither of them looking at each other, and Hyeon began trying to figure out a way to disengage that wouldn't be even more embarrassing.

"I'm a _philosopher_ ," Jaeger said with another sigh, fixing her with a regretful look, "A theologian, and a student of psychology. A lot of girls find the _fruit_ of grappling with life's deepest struggles and questions to be attractive, but consciously and directly trying to understand yourself is both difficult, and terrifying. I'm not interested in a romance with a girl who doesn't _want_ to know herself, to grapple with her innermost being, to try to understand the truth of what it means to be human."

"That's some pretty heavy stuff to go into for a few dates," Hyeon said a bit testily.

"Have you spent hours a day over weeks and months trying to understand how human psyches interact with and influence each other through the medium of romance, what the long-term effects of such can be, and how those effects turn positive or negative?"

"No," Hyeon replied bluntly, "And you knew that before you asked the question."

"Ninety-nine percent certainty, sure," Jaeger replied, shrugging again, "I have. You don't have to share all your hobbies with your romantic interest, but if what you hold as _most_ important in life isn't mutual, it isn't going to work. I just like to approach that issue _first_ , so neither of us get invested in each other before we find out that one of us wants a boyfriend/girlfriend because it gives them warm fuzzies, and the other because they want someone to spend the rest of their life and raise kids with."

"I can see why a lot of girls would consider you a kill-joy," Hyeon said a bit awkwardly, "And _I'm_ just mostly confused."

"Understandable," Jaeger said, offering her a faint smile, "Go ahead and share with Bora and Haneul, we both know they're waiting to see what I've had to say. Ninety-nine percent certainty you want some time to digest it all yourself as well."

"Ninety-nine percent is right," Hyeon said with a sharp nod, before standing and dusting herself off, "I'll talk with you again some time, philosophy-boy; for now I can at least tell Haneul it's nothing personal."

"You're more melancholy than usual," Caitlyn said that afternoon as she drove him home from school, "What happened?"

"One of those girls asked 'no dates for reals?'" Jaeger replied, "Found my reasoning uncomfortable."

"You were expecting that," Caitlyn pointed out.

"Doesn't mean it's not disappointing," Jaeger replied, before glancing over her shoulder, "You know those baskets movies depict on the front of girl's bicycles sometimes? You should get one for this motorcycle."

"What," Caitlyn said, a smile curling her lips, "Not feminine enough for you?"

"Nah," Jaeger said, "If there was a basket up there, I could ride in it while I'm in cat form. It'd be fun watching people's reactions."

((()))

"Hello dear," Lynette said again, bustling into her room with a couple of other girls in tow, one of whom was carrying a large cat, "This is Hotaru-" the shorter of the two girls, who looked almost painfully slender, nodded, "-and this is Ami-" the larger girl waved a little with her free hand, "-later I'll be introducing you to Ami's mother, who is also a doctor; the cat is Jaeger. I though you could do with some company; lunch will be in about half an hour, I hope you can get to know each other a little in that time."

And then Lynette bustled right back on out; the two older girls seated themselves in the modest chairs in the room, and then the three of them sat around and awkwardly stared at each other.

"Yikes," the cat said, "And I thought my nerd-friends were bad at socializing! Don't you know girls are supposed to be more social than guys?"

"Jaeger-kun," Ami said with a frown, looking down at the massive cat in her lap, "That's not very nice."

"It's apparently true, though," Jaeger said, gently disentangling himself from Ami, and hopping onto the burnt girl's bed, "I am… Hm, you can think of me as 'Maho Neko Jaeger.' Lately I've been functioning as a sort of guardian and adviser for magical girls. Care to give me your name?"

"...But you're not a Mau..." the girl on the bed said, more than a bit confused, "I don't remember you as..."

Her words trailed off into something incomprehensible.

"...So you've probably met Luna or Artemis then?" Jaeger asked, and the girl hesitated a moment before nodding.

"...I'm Usagi," she eventually said, "Named for my mother. What year is it?"

"...Nineteen ninety-six," Jaeger said with a sigh, flopping down like a cat, "I thought the resemblance was too strong. You're from the future, right?"

The younger Usagi nodded.

"Well," Jaeger said, grunting a little in irritation as he scratched at his fur, "Then the important question, really, is 'why did you come back?' We've already seen signs that the Black Moon Clan is active, and looking for something, though they've faced several defeats recently."

"...I'm hiding something," Usagi said quietly, "Can I talk to Artemis and Luna?"

"Sure," Jaeger said, yawning, before rolling off the bed, and heading towards the door, "They're out working with a friend right now, but when they get back, I'll have them come talk with you. Why don't you talk with Ami and Hotaru in the meantime?"

Neither of the other girls said anything as Jaeger left the room, and for long, awkward seconds, the room was quiet, two naturally shy girls and one feeling horribly out of place, none of them quite sure how to break the ice.

"Is your skin doing alright?" Ami eventually asked hesitantly.

"...It itches a little," Usagi said after a moment, "No real pain anymore though. I still feel weak though."

"I'm glad," Ami said, smiling a little at the younger girl, "I was there when you first appeared, and I was worried you would die."

"So was I," Usagi said faintly, looking down at the scarring covering her right arm, shivering a little as she poked at the largely-insensitive skin.

Acting almost impulsively, Hotaru hopped off of her chair and leaned over to hug the smaller girl.

"They fixed my arm and leg," she said quietly, "I'm sure they can fix your skin too."

Usagi nodded a little, opened her mouth, closed it again, and leaned into the hug.

((()))

Dinner tasted bland. It wasn't because of the food; it was because of the news. Maybe next time she wouldn't go to a restaurant that kept all the wall-mounted TVs therein tuned to various news stations. Cleanup was _still_ ongoing from the spate of strange terror attacks that had swept around the world, and in some of the particularly hard-hit cities, periodic and unexplained riots were still making news.

Something about the footage of shattered buildings, torn up streets, and smashed vehicles niggled at Beryl's mind. The pattern of damage, the lack of burn marks, the way that vehicles and other large objects were overturned or atop each other without signs of a blast wave, it made her mind _itch._ She didn't even know how she was capable of such analysis of the site of a terror attack, much less why the patterns would seem familiar, but whatever it was, it killed her appetite, made her (moderately expensive) meal taste bland, and generally _unsettled_ her.

She forced herself to finish the meal anyways, left appropriate cash at the table, and hurriedly left.

((()))

"Good to see you again, kid," Striker One said, slapping Striker Three on the back hard enough that a normal human would be seriously bruised, "At least the _Americans_ know which side their bread is buttered on."

"Yeah," Kazinski said, scowling a bit as he worked his shoulders, "They don't really seem to _like_ us, but they certainly _respect_ our strength."

"And they're not the only ones," Striker Five said as she entered the room, "We're on escort duty today; we'll be bringing a diplomat to see the new 'King of Congo.'"

"Isn't that place called Zaire these days?" Kazinski asked.

"Not anymore, apparently," Striker Five said, "Somebody took out Mobutu and claimed right of conquest. Word from Intelligence has it that he was involved in the Americans' strike on the golem-users moon base, so he is in part to thank for the drop off in attacks. Usually, the Senate wouldn't give a rat's ass about anything South of the Sahara, but this has put Congo back on the 'places that matter' map."

"If they're sending us," Kazinski said, starting to strap on his body armor, "I'm guessing we still haven't recovered all of our personnel."

"Word is that's halfway complete," Striker One said, "Full details are need-to-know."

"This is also something of a honeypot operation," Striker Five said, "By only fielding _us_ in the short term, the Senate is hoping to create the impression that we're a lot more understrength than we actually are. Hence, the number of operatives recovered is classified. If you were better at Telepathy, you'd be on that assignment yourself."

"I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing at this point," Kazinski said as he strapped on the last of his enchanted body armor, "I'd like to know, but I suspect the job would be boring as hell."

"Either way," Five said, "Grab your weapons, and get to the Transit Hall, we bounce in twenty minutes."

((()))

"Class is so _boring!"_ Usagi moaned, face down on the table,"Why do I need to know about Admiral Yi anyways?"

"He's a historic hero for Koreans," Rei said, her tone a touch scolding, "He is arguably responsible for both Korea's continued independence as a nation, and Japan being forced to deal with its internal conflicts so soon after Oda Nobunaga's death. Many say he is without peer as a Naval Commander."

"So he's the Japanese Nelson?" Minako asked after swallowing her latest bit of lunch, "Why didn't the teacher just say so?"

"Who's Nelson?" Usagi asked, lifting her head to look at Minako curiously, spawning a three-way argument between the two of them and Rei.

"They like this often?" Jaeger asked as he dropped into a seat beside Ami and across from Makoto.

"It is getting to be a bit of a pattern," Makoto said, "I'm not sure if I'm annoyed or amused."

"Probably both," Jaeger said with a shrug as he surreptitiously used a bit of extra-natural power to heat his lunch box, before opening it and revealing three grilled bratwurst in buns with shredded cheddar, "Sorry I haven't spent much time with you since we all started, but I've been somewhat hounded by my classmates. How are you settling in?"

"It's been nice," Ami said, smiling faintly, "Nobody cares how smart I am, and the boxing club is very nice to beginners."

"That's got…. Moon Young as its Captain, right?" Jaeger asked, before tearing into the first of his three bratwurst.

"Un," Ami said, nodding, "Makoto said it would be the best for us as beginners, and I think she was right. How are you settling in?"

"I'd probably be crazy with boredom," Jaeger said, glancing around to make sure nobody was close enough to casually overhear them, "If I didn't have that proxy body to do more productive things with. Anybody been giving you any trouble?"

"No more than the usual light harassment of first years by second years," Makoto said, shaking her head, "What's it like, joining directly into the third year?"

"Kind of intense," Jaeger said after finishing his first brat, "Most of these girls, I'd bet on them against your average line soldier from any given country in a fist fight. Given a lot of them aren't fully grown yet, that's really saying something."

"How would you rate me?" Makoto asked, leaning forward a bit, curiously.

"Certainly in the top percentile," Jaeger said with a shrug, "I haven't seen the 'big three' fight seriously, so I couldn't tell you past that. If you had the field and marksmanship training, I'd say most special forces teams would be more than happy to have you amongst their number. Have you gone a round with Moon Young yet?"

Makoto shook her head.

"Well if you're going to," Jaeger said, "Tell me. I'd like to watch."

((()))

The new Royal Palace of Congo was not what the Praetorians were expecting. Built dead-center in the mile-wide span of the Congo River just outside of Kinshasa, the capital, it was constructed with a strange architectural motif that none of the Praetorians, or the ambassador they were escorting, had ever seen before, and given the way many of the locals were staring at it, it was also _very_ new construction.

A soaring, grandiose suspension bridge connected the palace to the Ave Des Inflammables, one of Kinshasa's major riverside thoroughfares, but oddly enough no armed guards protected it from unauthorized access. Obstacles dotted the span, extremely solidly built, but in the form of elegant sculptures of flying beasts, some mundane and some fantastic, making crossing the bridge in any vehicle heavier than a motorcycle an impossibility, and thus the party from Rome walked. Partway across it became clear that while there was a distinct lack of mortal guards, some form of elemental or spirit had been bound to keep watch over the bridge.

Invisible to mundane senses, the sentry swept past the wary Praetorians three times, its ephemeral form employing an application of active scrutiny that tingled as it interacted with their assorted supernatural auras. Apparently satisfied that they were either expected or non-threats, the entity wandered off to patrol the shore-side of the bridge, and allowed them to continue onward.

A single uniformed doorman stood at the palace end of the bridge, holding up some form of clipboard and inspecting first it, then the faces of each member of the party in turn as they approached. Apparently satisfied, he nodded to them respectfully, almost to the point of being a shallow bow, and opened the grand, gold-plated mahogany doors to allow them entry.

The entrance hall, though of a completely different style, was every bit as grand as the Hall of the Senate back in Rome, and Striker One was begrudgingly impressed that whoever arranged the décor managed to balance display of wealth with tastefulness on a level he was not accustomed to seeing outside of Rome. Statuary in simple marble lined the walls, and well-varnished wood made up the fixtures, rather than gold or silver as he was accustomed to seeing in various European try-hard noble or royal residences. The only more _blatant_ display of wealth, was the gems integrated into the chandeliers above, casting scintillating rays of fractured light about the chamber; given the placement of some of the upper-story windows, he suspected sunsets would be a spectacular sight within the hall.

The doorman escorted them inside, silently leading them up the entrance hall's grand staircase, through a hall lined in portraits of past leaders of the various regions of Congo, to a second staircase. Once on the third floor, they turned about and moved back towards the palace's front, where a large lobby with luxurious furniture and modest fountains on either side sat outside of a pair of large brass-plated doors. The doorman knocked on said doors, and received a muffled response in Kikongo, a language none of them spoke.

" _The King will see you immediately_ ," The doorman said in lightly-accented French, before opening the doors, ushering them in,

The office beyond was gratuitously spacious, and appointed in a slightly more subdued manner than the rest of the palace thus far; _grand_ rather than edging on _grandiose_ , one could say. The thick, rich carpeting and darker colors on the walls giving the chamber a feel of a more inhabited, and less 'for public display' space. A desk sat at the far end of the room, in front of an entirely-glass wall that looked out over Kinshasa. The sheer size of the carved-wooden monstrosity that the desk was didn't become immediately apparent until the party began approaching it, the scale being distorted somewhat by the similarly-immense size of the throne-like chair behind it.

Striker One paid little attention to the desk, chair, or its occupant, however, focused instead upon the breathtaking mural that covered the entire ceiling. It was a starscape, one of such _absurd_ detail and quality that at first he thought it must be a masterpiece of some unknown master artist who kept a low profile in the international community for some reason or another. Then he sensed the faint magical aura about, and realized that instead, it was actually a real-time magical transposition of what the stars above would look like were it not day.

"Welcome," a cultured voice, one that Striker One could _hear_ the tone of command in, "To Congo. I am Nephrite, this land's new King, and I have invited you hear to speak of entering normalized diplomatic relations, as well as potential cooperation against our mutual foes, the Black Moon Clan."

"My apologies," the Roman diplomat said, offering the king a nodding near-bow much as the doorman had earlier offered them, "But I am unfortunately unfamiliar with both your own personage, and which lineage you are descended from. I myself am Gratius Marrus, a Roman of the Praetorian Order."

"Nephrite is the only name I carry within living memory of others," the King of Congo said as he spun his chair about, revealing himself to the Praetorian delegation, clad in his customary uniform and cape, "And my nation of origin is unknown to yourselves. Such things matter little to you as of now, however; more immediately germane is that I now rule Congo, its people are under my protection, and we have a mutual adversary providing a convenient excuse to learn to trust each other on the field of battle."

"...I do not agree with you wholly," Gratius said, "But what is diplomacy if not meeting on common ground, rather than focusing upon where two parties differ?"

"War, most often," Nephrite said with a somewhat harsh grin, "Which is also an excellent place to find allies. Your people are one of just two which roundly repulsed the assault of the Black Moon Clan during their initial series of raids upon the Earth; unfortunately you were less _approachable_ than the other, so this meeting comes after I have already spoken at some length with the Americans."

"They are formidable, for so young a people," Gratius allowed graciously, "I assume that none of the fruits of your negotiations with them put you at odds with Rome?"

"Hardly," Nephrite said, and odd smile spreading across his face, "I assume your seers observed the conflict which took place upon the surface of the moon?"

Gratius nodded.

"Such was the fruit of my alliance with the Americans," Nephrite said, "The Black Moon Clan has been driven from their base of operations, and forced to go into hiding here upon the Earth. Tell me, if I can lead you to them, as I did with the Americans, what can _Rome_ accomplish?"

((()))

"Hey kid," Jaeger said, falling into step alongside Jae-Gu Song as the younger boy left the school grounds, "How're you holding up?"

"What?" Jae-Gu said, looking at the upperclassman oddly.

"Sorry," Jaeger said, shaking his head, "Turn of phrase from a different culture, I guess. How's life treating you, how are you handling how life's treating you, so on and so forth."

"...Weird," Jae-Gu said after a moment, "I'm still getting swarmed with pretty girls who want to kiss me or something, offer me _really_ good food, and sometimes come and help me out at work. I don't get it at all."

"Well," Jaeger said, "Some of that, like the three girls who's been trying to get me to go out with her, is going to at least _start_ from them just wanting some male attention when most of their life there aren't boys around for. After that, it depends on the girl, you, and how you treat each other."

"That says a lot that makes sense without really helping," Jae-Gu said a bit morosely.

"Fair enough," Jaeger said with a chuckle, "Just because something is true, doesn't mean it's the thing you need to know in the situation at hand. My ride is going to be late today, so if you want, I'll walk and talk with you, see if I can help you sort things out."

Jae Gu turned and looked at Jaeger for a long moment, his expression mostly inscrutable.

"Or we could both just walk quietly while you decide if you want to trust me," Jaeger said with a shrug, "Our relationship thus far is basically 'only two boys at an all-girls school.' Not the biggest thing to build trust off of, I know."

"...I wouldn't have said it like that," Jae Gu said after a moment, "But yeah. How'd you know that was what I was thinking?"

"I'm older than I look, kid," Jaeger said with a small smirk, "Experience goes a long ways, and quite frankly, I'm _talented_ at understanding people."

"Alright," Jae-Gu said, narrowing his eyes at Jaeger, before turning to look where he was walking again, "If you're good at this, why is _Queen_ interested in me?"

"Not enough information," Jaeger said, rolling his eyes, "I talked with her _once_ , while you were napping on the floor and she was looking after your siblings after your match at the tournament. I can tell you she definitely _was_ interested in you though. Body language, facial expression, all that. Tell me something about your interactions with her, and I might be able to give you something useful."

Jae-Gu gave him a _look_ , but Jaeger just smiled at him.

"Being talented at something isn't the same thing as being magical at it," he said, "Some people are easier or harder to read; even someone who is _terrible_ at reading people in general will be able to read a _few_ people really well, usually because they think and emote in extremely similar ways."

"Are you sure you're a student, not a teacher?" Jae-Gu grumbled halfheartedly, "You seem to be halfway to lecture mode all the time."

"People generally become friends through familiarization and mutual activities or interests," Jaeger said, his smile widening a bit, "And one of _my_ interests actually _is_ teaching. If you want me to stop, tell me about this thing with Queen; do some of the talking yourself instead."

"Alright," Jae-Gu said, looking at Jaeger curiously for a moment before continuing, "You know who Queen is?"

"Princess of a business empire," Jae-Gu said with a nod, "Blessed with _very_ good looks, which would be enough to make her a minor celebrity, but she tops it off by being the top young adult female martial artist in Korea; particularly impressive given it's almost certainly entirely self-driven, rather than something her family pushed her into. Also at least mild enough in her egocentricism to not mind taking care of your siblings while you were in the ring, _personally_ when she could have had paid subordinates do the work, at that. That's all I know so far though."

"...Right," Jae-Gu said, giving Jaeger an odd look, "She keeps finding reasons to spend time around me; visiting me at home, at work, even helping out with washing cars. Can you believe that?"

"Girls and guys _both_ do odd things when they're infatuated," Jaeger said, "If she's infatuated, it's a bit out there for a rich girl, but I can see it. What else?"

"She's competitive with Choi Dal-Dal about time with me," Jae-Gu said, frowning a bit, "And she's brought in an entire truckload of stuff so she could offer food from professional chefs to compete with what Choi Dal-Dal offers me sometimes. I don't get why she'd go to all that trouble for me. I'm starting to get that a lot of the girls at Wild's don't spend much time around boys, but Queen misses a lot of days to do stuff for her family, so she's got to be around boys more than Dal-Dal or Moon Young."

"Wait, _Moon Young?_ " Jaeger said, blinking, "Is that seriously one of the girls names?"

"...Yes?" Jae-Gu said, glancing over at Jaeger again.

"That's an _awesome_ name," Jaeger said, grinning broadly, "Give it a bit of alliteration, and she could be a comic-book character. Moon Young Yang or something like that."

Jae-Gu glanced at Jaeger again, before shaking his head and pressing on.

"I like spending time with her," Jae-Gu said, "But I feel like she's asking for something without saying it outright, something I can't give her."

Jaeger hopped out ahead of Jae-Gu, his expression turning far more serious as he started walking backwards in front of the younger boy, studying his face.

"How'd you meet her?" Jaeger asked, no more teasing or humor in his tone.

"...I almost ran into her on my way to my first day at Wild's," Jae-Gu said, "She and Moon Young were on their way to school too, and Moon Young ran into me with her bicycle, knocking part of my breakfast onto Queen's clothing. She did that cold-angry thing, and… well, it was pretty stupid, but eventually we sorted it out."

"Sorted what out?" Jaeger asked, his face and tone showing nothing but honest curiosity.

"..It's embarassing," Jae-Gu said.

"Probably important then," Jaeger said, raising his eyebrows, "Sounds awkward, but if it's hard to talk about, that's almost always because there's a bunch of emotion wrapped up in it."

"Okay," Jae-Gu said, looking away from Jaeger, clearly not happy with what he was about to say, "After she pushed me about paying for clothes and stuff, I called her a monster. It was stupid, but the way she was acting reminded me of someone else, and I got angry."

"Want to talk about that someone else?" Jaeger asked.

"No," Jae-Gu said flatly, "This is about Queen."

"Not going to try to push in on that like this," Jaeger replied, nodding calmly, "I can tell you regret that pretty solidly at this point."

"Yeah," Jae-Gu nodded, his posture folding in on itself a bit.

"How bad did she take it?" Jaeger asked.

"She was shocked," Jae-Gu said uncomfortably, fidgeting a bit, and not looking at Jaeger, "Look, why are you focusing on this so much?"

"At a minimum," Jaeger replied, his tone fairly serious as he stared directly at Jae-Gu, still walking backwards down the sidewalk, "This is a big deal to _you._ Events with a lot of emotional impact can be that way for more than one person at a time. How would you say that compares to how other people treat her?"

"Aside from Moon Young and Dal-Dal," Jae-Gu said, "She doesn't talk to a lot of the other students, and when she does, she does it like she really is a queen. She's got a lot of fans, and she treats them fawning all over her like it's her due, so long as they keep out of her personal space."

"So," Jaeger said, nodding sharply, before pivoting to fall into place walking alongside Jae-Gu again, "Would you say that the way you treated her the first few times was completely different from how everyone else did?"

"Yes!" Jae-Gu said, "If one of her fans got mean with her, she'd slap them down, _hard!_ "

"Didn't she try that with you?" Jaeger asked, a hint of amusement slipping back into his voice.

"Yes, but," Jae-Gu said, "It didn't _stay_ that way."

"Did you just let it go after she tried to slap you down," Jaeger asked, "Or did you push to talk with her again, either get a verbal counter-blow or something like that in?"

"...Sort of," Jae-Gu said, "She passed me off some money as a sort of insult, I gave it back to her."

"So," Jaeger said, outright smirking, "You didn't let her push you around, you weren't intimidated by her high social status, and you made it clear you weren't after her money."

"I guess?" Jae-Gu said.

"Well," Jaeger said, snorting in amusement, before glancing down the road behind him, "What kind of guy do you think a girl surrounded by people who work for her, rich people with lots of money and huge egos, and with more money than she'll ever need in her life, would want?"

"I don't..." Jae-Gu started, before stopping dead, and turning to look at the older man, his eyes bright with realization.

"She's interested in me because I'm not like the rich people her family works with, I'm not under her authority, and I'm not after her for her money."

"That's what I can _estimate_ based on the limited amount of information I have," Jaeger said, nodding in spite of his cautioning words, "And even if I'm _right_ , I've got to warn you about a trap a lot of teens fall into. What do you want out of a romance?"

"I don't have the _time_ for romance right now," Jae-Gu said, a hint of grumpiness in his voice as he scowled just a touch, "I've got a job, I need to get through school, and look after my brother and sister. I like spending time with Queen, Moon Young, and Dal-Dal, but I don't have the time for stuff outside of school, or the money for dates or anything."

"...Okay," Jaeger said neutrally, glancing back over his shoulder again at the faint sound of a motorcycle, "I'll give you the short version then. I don't know Queen, but knowing what I do about her circumstances, I can, again, _guess_ , about some of the things she really wants in life. One of them being able to spend time with someone who sees _her_ , not her position, money, or how gorgeous she is. Someone who isn't intimidated of, jealous of, or greedy for any of that."

"Well she should spend time with someone else then," Jae-Gu said, scowling again, "I'm a bit jealous of how she doesn't have to worry about money."

"That's still not the same thing of being jealous _of_ the money," Jaeger said, clapping a hand on Jae-Gu's shoulder, "The distinction can be subtle, but it's important. If it weren't for how you talk about her getting competitive with Dal-Dal over food, and spending time working at your job, I'd say she wasn't necessarily even romantically interested in you. With those, she probably is, but something important to remember, is that it's not just about who you are, it's who and what she _sees_ you as."

Jaeger paused, waiting for a response, but Jae-Gu just looked at him. A brief smile quirked its way across Jaeger's face before he continued.

"She doesn't know you the way you know yourself," Jaeger said, "And I'm _guessing_ , that a big part of what she sees you as, is an opportunity to escape from people who don't care about _her_ , just what they can get from her. Do you find her attractive?"

"Of course I do," Jae-Gu said, looking at Jaeger oddly, "She's _gorgeous_ , really smart, and really strong."

"What do you want most from life?" Jaeger asked, "And maybe second or third most while we're at it."

"...I don't know if I'd tell you if I even knew," Jae-Gu said, giving Jaeger another odd look.

"Do you think any of what you want most would be served by being in a romantic relationship with someone?" Jaeger asked.

"No," Jae-Gu said without hesitation, "I said I don't have the time for any of that."

"Right," Jaeger said nodding, "But if she thinks that what she wants most, or maybe just second most or third most out of life, is something she can get by spending time with you?"

"...She's going to spend a lot of time with me," Jae-Gu said, looking over at Jaeger again, with a bit more of an appraising cast to his eyes, "This makes a lot more sense than I thought you were going to."

"Talent and experience," Jaeger said, smiling again, "I'm literally blessed by God with both, though some of the latter has come painfully too. Keep your eyes open, and you'll learn some stuff yourself, though your talents are likely to lie in another field."

"...thank you," Jae-Gu said, glancing over as a _huge_ western woman slowly cruised up behind them on a motorcycle, its low speed keeping its engine noise down, "That your ride?"

"Yeah," the woman said, grinning over at Jae-Gu, "I'm Caitlyn. You the underclassman?"

"Jae-Gu Song," Jae-Gu said, offering the woman a short bow in greeting as she pulled her motorcycle to a stop, "Pleased to meet you."

"Good to meet you," Caitlyn said, clapping the younger boy on the shoulder and almost knocking him over, "Listen to Jaeger's advice, he's a smart cookie."

"He'd probably take you more seriously if _you_ followed my advice," Jaeger said, rolling his eyes as he picked up a helmet from the back of the motorcycle, fitting it in place before hopping on behind Caitlyn, "I'll see you later kid; hope I've been able to help."

((()))


	13. Chapter 13

((()))

"You have counseled me poorly, Wiseman," Demande declared, "And to considerable loss."

"This is true," Wiseman replied, turning his hooded head enough to indicate he was giving the Prince his attention, though as ever not revealing his face, "I confess, I _still_ do not understand how this 'Nephrite' could have disposed of Metallia."

"Given his displayed prowess," Demande said sharply, "I see little reason to doubt him any further."

"My prince," Wiseman rasped, "Metallia was a being that existed as an incarnated _concept._ One cannot _destroy the concept of hunger."_

"Perhaps," Demande said, "But if not, is it not possible to force the concept to no longer be incarnated? Or to _change_ the nature of Metallia, and then destroy it after its nature had been adequately changed?"

"...I cannot fathom such a feat being possible for an entity lesser than the _incarnation of Change_ ," Wiseman replied after a long moment, "But at this time, I am willing to, if nothing else, consider it possible that Nephrite co-opted the service of such a being in order to do away with Metallia."

"Then tell me," Demande said, "If Nephrite is capable of such things, what else must we expect from him?"

"I cannot say for certain," Wiseman admitted, shaking his head, "But I can tell you that bargains with such beings are not entered into lightly. So long as we do not push his back to the wall, or threaten something he holds dearer than life, he most likely will continue making use of mortal pawns."

"And if he has the ability to bargain with such entities with little need to worry the cost?" Demande demanded.

"Then we have already lost," Wiseman said, shaking his head, something sounding like fear appearing in his voice for the first time since Demande had met him, "I have been involved in bargains made with conceptual incarnations before, and-"

They were interrupted by the ground trembling, and an explosion echoing down from the cave entrance a moment later.

((()))

 _Chains of Guanine and Adenine mixed with exotic energies, cell structures mutated and migrated, organs shifted, new tissues sprouted, protein chains, filtering mechanisms, physical-metaphysical interface mechanisms, tissue darkened, fangs grew…_

Beryl snapped to consciousness, gasping desperately for breath as fractured, mixed memories and nightmares chased themselves around inside her head. Throwing her blanket off, she tumbled out of bed, lurched to her feet, and staggered into the bathroom. Blinking away temporary blindness as she flipped on the light, it took a few moments for her to be able to see herself clearly in the mirror.

Normal white nightgown, well-maintained but sensible cuticles and black hair…

...Why was she looking for red and overly-long?

Taking a moment to drain the cup of filtered water she kept beside the sink, Beryl leaned against the sink, looking around for something to anchor her sense of reality to, as everything seemed just a little bit _off._ Not finding what she was looking for, or even knowing what it was, she left the bathroom and headed out through her bedroom to the small balcony attached to it.

The sounds of a living city at night greeted her as soon as she slid open the double-paned glass door, and the smells (both pleasant and not) reached her nostrils. Taking a deep breath, she clutched the balcony rail, and looked out at the city lights and people. It helped, seeing other people, seeing tangible, _real_ things that she understood the principles behind, and could explain to herself in her head while her thundering heart slowed to a more normal pace.

What had that _been?_ It was nothing like the nightmares she'd had of the hospital or the cruise liner...

Beryl wasn't sure, but she hoped it never happened again.

((()))

"Homework is _evil_ ," Usagi declared decisively, "Some kind of stupid invention by forces of darkness."

"Homework is _important_ ," Rei countered, "It's how you really _learn_ things."

"If that's true," Usagi demanded, jabbing a figure at the taller girl accusingly, "Then why do we have to go to class first?"

"Memory retention rates," Ami said softly, the more observant present noticing she had barely been able to bring herself to interrupt the two, "Memory retention for material only heard is well below thirty percent, for material heard, read, written, and spoken, it is over eighty percent."

"Really?" Usagi said, turning curious eyes on the shortest of her companions.

Ami nodded.

"Then you should speak up more!" Usagi declared, "If you want to remember everything you need to talk lots!"

"That's an interesting way to take that," Minako said quietly, glancing over at Makoto.

"If she's talking, she doesn't have to be writing," Makoto said with a shrug, not looking up from her own textbook, "Which do you think she's more interested in?"

((()))

"So," Caitlyn said as she pulled off the highway, into the residential area their current residence was in, "How's the kid doing?"

"I'm not entirely sure yet," Jaeger said, his frown audible in his voice, "He's touchy about that part of his past and personal life, but I'm starting to suspect that he's raising his two younger siblings alone, and working most of the day after school to support them."

"...That seems kind of ridiculous," Caitlyn said, "I know you're not much for social programs, but isn't this the sort of thing that's supposed to take care of?"

"I have no problems with state-supported orphanages," Jaeger said, "But I don't know enough about things in Korea to know if that's not an option for taking care of his siblings, or if he just refused to let them go when he could take care of them. I'll be looking into it though."

"Make sure you tell Lyn what you find," Caitlyn said, "At the least, she'll want to make sure the kids are okay."

"Yeah," Jaeger said, his mind already elsewhere, "I'll do that. Kid asked me for advice on girls."

"Hah!" Caitlyn barked out a note of sharp laughter, "Irony there, much is."

"Maybe," Jaeger said, rolling his eyes, "I talked with him about how some people get into a relationship, not because of what the other person is, but because of what they represent to them."

"Oh?" Caitlyn said, turning into the actual street they lived on.

"Yeah," Jaeger said, the sort of tiredness that wasn't physical leaking into his tone of voice, "About how some people will work _really_ hard to pursue a relationship, when it represents to them something that they want, like freedom from social stifling, and being used by others."

Caitlyn nodded with an affirmative grunt as they pulled into their driveway behind Lynette's car, and the motorcycle puttered to a stop, allowing them to dismount.

"Or," Jaeger said, pulling his helmet off and stepping around so that he could look Caitlyn in the eye, "Safety."

Caitlyn flinched, but tore her gaze around to look Jaeger in the eye again in just a moment.

"You know that's not the only reason I'm interested in you," she said a bit roughly; Jaeger's sad, worried expression somehow making her heart seize in her chest.

"Yeah," Jaeger said, frowning just a touch, "I know it's not the only reason, but I'm pretty sure it's the biggest. I'd've hoped that by now, you'd know I'm more than willing to protect you whether we're a 'thing' or not."

"I _know_ that," Caitlyn said, rolling her eyes, her face twitching back and forth between a scowl and a smile, before dropping her volume low, "That just makes me like you all the more. John, you're a _hero_. You'd be it by disposition even _without_ the superpowers."

"Maybe," Jaeger said quietly, nodding his head towards the house's door, "You didn't know me before I was summoned into Chicago, and the huge pressure to act that whole fiasco put on me. I was a lot less willing to take risks, once upon a time."

" _Were_ ," Caitlyn said, following him across the yard then inside, "I was pretty different before you knew me too. Who you are _now_ is amazing."

Jaeger squirmed a bit, looking uncomfortable at her praise as he toed off his shoes.

"You're idealizing me," he said awkwardly.

"Not really a whole lot to idealize," Caitlyn said with a snort, "The biggest beef I have with you is that you won't go out with me."

"You don't-" Jaeger started with a scowl, then growled a bit, and shifted into his cat form, shaking out his fur before moving into the living room and hopping up onto the back of one of the chairs there, "You don't know a lot of things about me."

"I know enough," Caitlyn said, resisting the urge to sit next to Jaeger and try to pick him up for a cuddle/petting session, "You risk your lives to save others, you've got a little bit of the old-school gentleman about you, but you're not some traditionalist jerk, you're polite to basically everybody ever, and you treat it like some sort of cardinal sin to lash out at someone because you're angry, so even when you _are_ angry, you don't hurt people just because they pissed you off. If the girls at that school knew more about you, they'd _all_ be lining up to go into the ring with me, and seeing how that Haneul girl fought, I might actually lose to some of them if I didn't cheat."

Jaeger scowled fiercely, his tail standing up in irritation.

"I'm a _cat_ now," he said pointedly, "Which has helped deal with one of my biggest failings, but if you knew some of the unsanitary thoughts about sex that went through my mind while I was still human, you'd not be so sanguine."

"And when you're angry, you think about beating people up, right?" Caitlyn said, rolling her eyes, "John, I _know_ you. You'd _never_ touch a girl like that without her permission. I bet if you were still human, and I pulled my shirt off right now, you'd either turn around or cover your face with your hands until I put my shirt back on or left the room, and that's even if I _asked_ you to look."

"Doesn't make lusting after women I'm not married to _right_ ," Jaeger said, "It's disrespectful, especially when I dwelled on it. Guys build unhealthy and unreasonable subconscious expectations about sexual relationships that way, and fighting the thoughts most of the time, entertaining them the rest, won't do any woman I marry any favors with the odd deformed thoughts she'll have to deal with."

"John," Caitlyn said, "Stop being so _down_ on yourself. I know you're not _perfect_ , I don't expect you to be, but just that you _try_ , and try hard enough that you control your _actions_ if not your thoughts, make you _so much_ better than most men."

Jaeger scowled, his tail thrashing in irritation, and he visibly resisted the urge to start kneading his claws through the upholstery.

"Can I ask you a _really_ hard question?" Jaeger eventually asked, his tone tense.

"Shoot," Caitlyn said with a small smirk.

"Would you have thought I was so impressive," Jaeger said, looking away from her for a moment, before scowling and forcing himself to meet her gaze again, "Before what happened to you in Chicago."

Caitlyn blinked, then frowned; she hadn't thought he'd meant talking about _that_ when he'd said 'hard question,' but she decided she was more than willing to roll with it.

"No," she said after a moment's thought, making a point of staring Jaeger dead in the eye, "I was a spoiled little princess back then, and I mostly would have just cared about your looks, and how impressive your career prospects were. I don't know if I ever told you, but I was planning on being a lawyer, and back then I didn't want to 'marry down' once I made Partner in whatever firm I worked at. I had _no idea_ what was… you still blame yourself for me getting raped, don't you?"

"A little bit, yeah," Jaeger said, sighing and flipping down to sprawl as only cats can on the couch, "I thought they were going to stay focused on me; I should have realized _somebody_ would try something punitive towards your family."

"Isn't your God all about grace and forgiveness when you screw up?" Caitlyn asked, trying to decide whether or not to move over to the couch to offer him a little comfort.

"...Yeah," Jaeger said, scrubbing his face with a paw in a jarringly human-like gesture for a cat, "I'm not always the best at realizing when I'm still holding something against myself though. Can _you_ forgive me for my part in that?"

"Jaeger," Caitlyn said, hopping over to the couch and laying a hand on his furred flank, "There is nothing _to_ forgive-"

"You don't need to say that," Jaeger said, turning to her with a fierce scowl, then trailing off as she raised a hand to ask for silence.

"No, I mean it _literally_ ," She continued, "I'm not trying to 'save your feelings' here. When I was in the 'blame everybody' phase, yeah, I was mad at you. But as Lyn helped me get past that, I got enough control of myself to look at the _whole_ situation. Those thugs came to shake down my parents shop _before_ you got involved with anything. Given we'd already paid up protection money from a different gang that month, we either couldn't have paid then, or wouldn't have been able to pay the next month. Either way, at some point, they would have come asking when we didn't have _money_ to give, and I already know _damn well_ how 'Knuckle' took payment when you couldn't cough up the green."

Jaeger flinched a little at her harsher words, and Caitlyn resisted the urge to smirk at that.

"I don't know if I would have died in there," Caitlyn concluded, "But you certainly saved me from having more 'quality time-'" Caitlyn sneered, "With that psycho. I know you're not perfect, but I still want to be _with_ you. I _trust_ you."

Jaeger sighed and rolled away from her, his body flowing up into human form again as he did so, ending up seated and facing her across the middle of the couch.

"I see a lot of admirable qualities in you as well," Jaeger said, looking at her with a pain in his eyes that confused Caitlyn, "And to be perfectly frank, I'm _damned_ lonely. I would _love_ to be in a relationship with someone I could trust to the hilt, someone I could cuddle with, someone I could _depend_ on. You're _already_ most of what I want in a woman, but there are things I want in life _more_ than a good wife. Caitlyn, what do you want _most_ out of life?"

"To be with someone who Loves me," Caitlyn replied promptly, a bit surprised Jaeger dropped that question right then, but more than familiar enough with the man to have thought over her answer long since, "Someone who I can Love in return. And _no_ , I'm not some starry-eyed girl obsessing over you, I _want_ that someone to be you, but it doesn't _have_ to. I can go looking for someone else if I need to, if you give me a reason we shouldn't be together that I'll buy."

"That's a better answer than most have," Jaeger said, a somewhat morbid smile crossing his face for a moment, "What answer do you think I'd give if someone asked where my capacity for Love comes from?"

"You'd say from God," Caitlyn replied promptly, "You'd probably start trying to put together a way of explaining your gospel that you thought they'd understand."

"Yeah," Jaeger said, the smile on his face growing into something more bittersweet, "You do know me pretty well. I don't think I ever told you why I hesitated for a moment, during the fight in Kota Kinabalu, rather than pouncing on Beryl when I had the chance. Do you know why?"

Caitlyn shook her head.

"There was that 'still small voice' in my ear," Jaeger said, looking her in the eye with a calm assurance, "Telling me to wait, that the time wasn't there yet. My tank-cat got wrecked because I hesitated, and part of me was arguing with myself for a bit there. I _knew_ whose voice that was, but right then and there, the consequences seemed disastrous. Then, after Beryl was freed from the possession, after she reforged the Ginzuisho, after Ami cast the repair spell on my mecha, _then_ that voice told me to strike, and I did.

"If I'd struck when _I'd_ thought I should, we would have won, but thousands would have been dead, including a woman who might have been Metallia's greatest victim of all. Because I let God's plan trump my own, instead thousands were saved, including Beryl herself, and in a more personal thing for me, I was freed from the curse shackling my mind and power."

Jaeger paused a moment, his gaze still fixed on Caitlyn's, before offering his concluding thought.

"My loyalty is to my God first and foremost," he said, "I will not enter a relationship with a woman that would conflict with that loyalty. It would violate my principles, and it wouldn't be fair to _her_ , because she would be trying to head down a different path with a partner who wasn't willing to go there. As we are now, 'getting together' would feel great for a little while, but would make us both miserable in the long run."

Caitlyn scowled, but held her peace for a few long moments to think things out before responding.

"Part of me wants to say that's psuedo-philosophical bullshit," She eventually said, "But that's just because I don't like your conclusion. You mind if I speculate a bit on something you _didn't_ say, but want to?"

"Go ahead," Jaeger said, shrugging.

"You're also trying to ask, 'why don't you believe in my God yet?'" Caitlyn said, "And maybe a bit of 'why are you still trying to get together with me if you won't?'"

"...That'd be a fair description," Jaeger said with a nod, "It seemed like it'd be a bit too crass to drop the first question right now, and probably too rude to ask the last one just about ever."

"The answer is 'I'm not sure,'" Caitlyn said, scowling again, "And now you're going to say 'Well, better figure that out before you keep trying to get together with me.'"

"I wouldn't have worded it that way," Jaeger said with a hint of a smile, "But pretty much. People hesitate when trusting someone as completely as God asks, and not without reason. He doesn't ask for a massive list of things, but what He does ask for, is what matters most of all."

Jaeger paused for a moment, looking at the clock and sighing.

"I need to go get supper started," he said, "You want some alone time to cogitate?"

"Sure," Caitlyn said grumpily, "Why not? Not like I'm going to get anything done until I do."

Jaeger nodded as he stood, patted her on the shoulder reassuringly, then headed into the kitchen, leaving her alone on the couch.

"Isn't it a bit early for a sleepover?" Makoto asked, looking out the window at the sun, not _high_ in the sky, but certainly well above the horizon.

"Shush!" Minako ordered imperiously, wagging her finger in Makoto's face, "This is the time for silliness, not seriousness! Now start goofing off!"

"Yes ma'am!" Usagi said cheerfully, tossing a sloppy salute at the other blonde, before bringing around a pillow and smashing it over Minako's head.

"Of course," Minako declared in an accent none of the other girls recognized, "You realize, this means war."

((()))

"So," Caitlyn said, leaning against the doorframe as she watched Jaeger frying up some garlic bread, "I think I've figured out one key bit about why you're stuck on the God thing, and remembered another you've talked about in the past."

Jaeger glanced over at her just long enough to make it clear he was listening, then turned back to the toasting bread.

"So first," Caitlyn said, "You've talked about 'godly definitions of Love' before, more than once. I always liked the definitions you used, and I agree with the thing about 'Sacrificial Love' being really important for an intimate relationship, whether it's romantic or not. I've just realized though, you probably don't think me agreeing with your definitions is enough, you aren't going to _trust_ my intentions towards you unless you believe I also agree with the _reasons_ behind those definitions."

A moment passed, and Jaeger glanced her way again, seeing that she clearly was waiting for a response.

"Pretty much," he said, a touch of melancholy in his voice, "A lot of parents believe in 'children, obey your parents,' not because it's supposed to be an authority structure whereby the child obeys the parent because it's in their best interests to obey someone who protects and cares for them and is much older and more experienced, but because it's _convenient_ for the parent if the child is obedient. It's also convenient for someone who values a Romance above almost everything else, to believe in sacrificing everything they're consciously aware of for the person and relationship they're fixated on."

"...So you're saying it's easy for someone to 'give up everything for love' if everything else they have, they don't care about anyways," Caitlyn said after a moment's thought.

Jaeger nodded.

"...Okay," Caitlyn said, nodding slowly, "And the second thought, the one I figured out for myself, is that you're worried about what I think my purpose in life is. I guess it kind of ties into the other one, since it's sort of a 'I know you want to do this thing, but _why_ do you _want_ to do this thing?"

"Yeah," Jaeger said, taking the latest round of garlic bread off of the pan, before turning to face her directly, his countenance determined and just a touch grim, "I know what my purpose in life is; pursuit of Truth, pursuit of Love. I am incredibly grateful that these two essential concepts are united in the person of Jesus Christ, allowing the two pursuits to synergize, rather than conflict; all other things are ultimately secondary to these pursuits. What is _your_ purpose in life? What do _you_ hunger for above all else?"

Caitlyn sighed, exhaling slowly as she chewed on the question; after most of a minute with no further words, Jaeger turned and loaded some more garlic bread onto the frying pan. Caitlyn stood and watched him work from behind, trying to sort out her own desires in order of priority.

"I want your acceptance," she eventually said, "I want your whole-heated acceptance in all things, in all ways."

Jaeger visibly winced, laying a hand on the counter on either side of the stove, and slumping.

"You're looking for validation," he said quietly, "For affirmation, for someone definitely and in a way you fully and absolutely can believe, to proclaim and assert your essential worth and value."

"...That sounds about right," Caitlyn said hesitantly.

Jaeger groaned, turned and stepped away from the stove, before slumping down into a chair at the kitchen table. He looked tired in a way Caitlyn hadn't seen since the day after they raided the Dursleys, a bleakness in his eyes, and a sort of lagging numbness to his movements.

"You're looking for that from the wrong person, Caitlyn," Jaeger said, "You need that from God, not fickle man."

Two hours later, after dinner (eaten in pajamas at the dinner table, a visibly-awkward Caitlyn and Jaeger both glad for a distraction) and a second pillow-fight, the five disguised Japanese schoolgirls lay around, giggling off the fading adrenaline. As they wound down, movie-watching was proposed, which (of course) included popcorn, and then after they finished their second movie (a period romance), they ate ice cream, and started rotating through the two upstairs bathrooms.

Makoto and Rei, by right of being least reluctant to leave their nest of stuffed furniture, blankets, and pillows, were the first through the bathrooms, though when Rei returned, she found Makoto had also been the first to return to the lounge they were camped out in.

Given the taller girl's more casual attitude towards her looks, Rei wasn't particularly surprised; what _did_ surprise her, was finding Makoto with a white-knuckled grip on the arm of the couch, eyes focused a million miles away, with tears leaking down her face.

"Makoto," she called as she stepped around in front of the girl, and carefully reached out to touch her arm, "What's wrong?"

Makoto gasped the instant she was touched, her arm twisting around instinctively to seize Rei's in a crushing grip. Rei winced, but waited patiently for a few seconds as Makoto came back to herself, trembling.

"Rei?" she said, before glancing down, then snatching her hand away from the slender shrine-maiden's arm as though it were on fire.

"Lost in the past?" Rei asked gently, rubbing her arm as she shifted around to sit next to Makoto on the couch.

"...The hospital," Makoto mumbled, shivering violently as she spoke, "If I'm alone too long, I keep getting stuck in memories of that fight."

"I'm a bit surprised," Rei said, gingerly reaching over to lay a hand on Makoto's shoulder, "I would have thought you'd be thinking more of what happened on the ship."

"I didn't put my _fist_ through somebody's _chest_ on the ship," Makoto said, her voice quaking as she trembled, "I've been getting into street fights for _years_ , and I've never even gotten _close_ to hurting somebody that bad."

"...You're more afraid of losing control," Rei said, surprise clear in her voice, "Than you are of dying."

"Rei," Makoto said, turning slightly so she could meet the older girl's gaze out of the corner of her eye, "I'm strong. _Freakily_ strong. It's been more than a year since anybody, girl _or_ boy, could beat me in a fight, unless they were a dojo master. Even the first students of various dojos barely slowed me down anymore. _That_ man had some magic healing or something, but losing control like that, I'll _kill_ someone."

" _He_ was trying to kill _you_ ," Rei pointed out, "And kidnap Usagi. You _needed_ to win that fight, or else they would have taken her before Gates-sensei could get there to help."

"But that doesn't mean I needed to _kill_ him!" Makoto burst out, fresh tears leaking out, "I wasn't _trying_ , it was just a _screwup!_ And I don't even know if that's better or _worse_ than if I'd been trying to kill him on purpose!"

"Makoto," Rei said, taking a deep breath and stretching her arm over the other girl's shoulders, "I live and work at a shrine. Japan isn't as religious as it used to be, but with it being in the middle of Tokyo, we get a _lot_ of traffic from those who do still take things seriously, or at least seriously enough to come by when they're having issues they don't know how to deal with. My grandfather deals with the _really_ serious stuff, but over the last year he's had me start sitting in on some of the moderately serious cases. Including one case where a police officer was torn up over killing someone in the line of duty."

Makoto turned to face Rei more fully, but said nothing, waiting for her to go on.

"There's..." Rei began, glancing away for a moment as Ami entered the room, "Grandfather, when he's _serious_ can be a very impressive man. He put it down to _choice._ Everything that happens to us, affects us in some way, but we have a _choice_ about what we focus on. For where you are now… I think he'd say something like 'Remember that you have seen what can go wrong, but also remember that you have saved your friend, and focus on striving to ensure that should such a situation arise again, you will have better choices available to you."

"That's a lot easier to say than do," Makoto murmured.

"Yes," Rei said with a sharp nod, " _Very_ hard. But it _can_ be done. Crazy people delude themselves about reality all the time, to the point where they refuse to see things that are literally right in front of them. Self-persuasion can be a powerful thing, and 'I'll do better next time' is a better thought than 'I can't believe I did that.'"

"That's an amazing thing to say," Ami said softly, coming around to sit in front of the other two girls, "I didn't know you were so eloquent."

"...I have my moments," Rei said, preening just a _little_ at the praise.

"What brought this conversation on?" Ami asked, glancing back and forth between Makoto and Rei.

"Talking about what happened in Malaysia," Makoto said tiredly, slumping a little.

She _had_ stopped trembling though, Rei noticed. After a long moment of silence, she turned to Ami and saw that the shorter girl was wincing and holding her head.

"Ami?" Rei asked, "What's wrong?"

"...Do you remember the fight in the streets of Kota Kinabalu?" Ami asked, her voice tense with pain.

"...No?" Rei asked.

"I need to sort my memories out," Ami said, wriggling over to where she'd laid her blanket and pillow earlier, "Please excuse me."

"Do you want us to get one of the adults?" Makoto asked.

"No," Ami said, crawling under her blanket, "They probably don't remember either. Please, just give me some time to think things through."

Makoto opened her mouth to ask _what_ things, but Rei jostled her gently, and shook her head.

"Give her time," Rei said quietly, "Pushing people before they're ready doesn't help."

Makoto nodded, and for a few minutes, the two sat silently, lost in their own thoughts. While Makoto struggled with viewing her memories more to prevent such a mishap the next time, Rei was more occupied by the niggling sensation that she'd forgotten something, something _important._ The young miko's thoughts shifted from the attack on the cruise liner, through the attack on the hospital, to the beach, where the young burned girl had first showed up, to…

Why had they been on the beach? Rei frowned, her brow creasing as she focused; they were on the beach because they were on vacation, and they were on vacation in Kota Kinabalu because…

No, that _wasn't_ why they were in Kota Kinabalu. It wasn't because of a vacation, it was because…

Rei's eyes widened, a sensation like glass shattering resonated through her mind, and suddenly she sympathized with Ami's headache.

((()))

"You know," I said quietly to myself, "I think I kind of hate this."

I was seated, in cat form, my body's current _true_ form, on my bed in the Seoul house, staring at the summoned 'entity' I had initially created to rip Mistress 9's soul out of Hotaru's body. It was an ugly thing, only 'human' in the sense that it was close enough to give an uncanny-valley effect, all of its facial proportions slightly off, its coloration and hair uneven and inconsistent. It was also _useful_ , which was why I was still paying Zeon for its upkeep day-by-day, and using it to keep a project running.

Anima's magic-crafting system was a costly thing, in that any item required special reagents to create. On a five-tier system, tier 1 items 'only' required things like a gilding of Star Metal; tier 2 required fairy dust or the blood of a king. Tier 3, I could get some access to in a 'cheaty' way because I had access to easy teleportation and Earth was well-explored, meaning snow from the 'highest mountain' or lava from the 'largest volcano' were things I could reasonably get. Tier 4, on the other hand, became exceedingly difficult; the heart of an Ancient Dragon was the only listed way of getting there.

Tier 5, the only listed way to get points on _that_ tier, was the permanent sacrifice of either some of a high-grade wizard's magical Power, or of a high-Gnosis creature's life/soul.

Such as the soul of Mistress 9 I had handily stored away in a Banjo. It was a _powerful_ thing, and offered an opportunity to create potent effects that I didn't know if I would ever reliably have the chance at again, given how rare splinter souls of Great Old Ones were. Through use of Psychokinesis and Creation Magic, I'd rendered my room into what was probably a peer for the best Alchemy labs on the planet, and the most 'exciting' part of my life lately had been remotely managing the summoned construct-being to keep the project going while I was at _bloody high school._

In some ways, it relieved the monotony of sitting in a high school classroom for hours on end, to have my consciousness spreading over to work the crafting project. At least it was _new_ material to be working with, even if it was largely the magical version of Chemistry, but by the end of some days, I felt burnt out even with my supernaturally-enhanced intellect. And burnout was all _kinds_ of not-fun; while the geas laid by the Prismatic Dragon and Fumbles had been removed when Usagi's wish dropped, when my emotional defenses were worn down by fatigue, it was hard not to lose myself in the terror and horror of how thoroughly my mind had been violated.

Worse, I was at _best_ pulling even with the level of power and prowess I'd held before I was thrice-cursed, and thrice again; if either of my prior enemies sought me out again, odds were they'd just kill me outright this time.

Shivering at the thought, I redirected my mind back towards the work at hand, or possibly paw. Much like at least one theory I'd heard regarding enchanting in Nirn, enchanting with souls did not consume an actual _soul_ to power the desired enchantment. Which was good, because of anyone or anything other than God Almighty was capable of rending final judgment on a soul, that'd result in some serious existential quandaries on my part. Instead, enchantment via this method more trapped and then siphoned off the power the soul had accrued during its time in life, or possibly unlife; I'd not had the 'opportunity' to experiment with a trapped undead spirit to find out.

As a splinter of an Eldritch Horror, Mistress Nine held quite a formidable bit of power indeed; enough power to make a _potent_ different to my own supernatural capacities. It had been a week in the works now, and I needed to finalize my selection of which properties to imbue the item with. I would only get one shot at this for the forseeable future, so…

Cutting short any waffling, and forcing aside continued frustration with Caitlyn, I _moved_ , not physically, but with my arcane might, my puppet moved, and the banjo with Mistress Nine's power shattered.

...I was almost disappointed. No displays of light, no thunderous reports, in fact, to one not able to sense the supernatural as a mage, it would seem as though nothing at all had happened. I hopped across the room to inspect the pendant that I had prepared for this purpose, and subjected it to some supernatural scrutiny.

A buff to Psychic and Arcane might, coupled with an ability to bend probability in my favor, and a minor boost to magical resistance thrown in to use up the remaining potential. It had worked.

My meat-puppet attached the pendant to my collar, and I grinned.

((()))

"Rats," Minako breathed quietly as she joined the rest of the teens in the TV lounge.

It wasn't hard for her to tell that Makoto had been crying; Rei's posture was too stiff in the way it usually was when she was trying to not show what she was thinking or feeling, and Ami had curled herself up beneath her blankets.

"What happened?" Usagi asked as she walked in behind her.

"Bad memories," Rei rasped out, and Makoto started slightly at the older girl's tone, turning to look sharply at the shrine maiden.

"What do you mean?" Makoto asked worriedly, easing Rei around so she could look her in the eyes.

"How many here remember Beryl with red hair?" Rei asked.

Usagi flinched as she was passing Minako to walk towards the couch.

"I think that's all of us, except maybe Makoto," Minako said with a sigh, heading over to sit in one of the recliners herself, "You and Ami just started remembering now I take it?"

"Yes," Ami said faintly, sounding distinctly uncomfortable, but far more recovered than Rei, "What happened?"

"Some kind of magic or another," Minako said as she grabbed a blanket and settled in, "All kinds of things can be done with magic, I've never seen this one before, but I've seen stuff like it before."

"Something that affected the whole world?" Ami asked faintly, sitting up and dragging blankets down from over her head, "The people who attacked us in Malaysia, they were there because it had affected people _everywhere._ "

"Probably," Minako said with a shrug, "Haven't you ever read fairy-tales? If a whole kingdom can be enchanted, why not a whole _world?_ And with how dangerous that evil cloud was, it's probably related to that."

Usagi burst into tears, burying herself in blankets on the couch, shocking the other girls. Rei and Makoto immediately moved to comfort her; Minako chewed on her lip as she considered going to get the girl's parents, and Ami's eyes widened as she stared at Usagi.

"Your wish!" Ami gasped, "You think your wish is what made everybody forget!"

"I didn't mean for this to happen!" Usagi sobbed, "I just wanted all the dying and possession and demons to stop!"

"They did," Minako said insistently, "And you _definitely_ saved a ton of lives! Look at what happened to Miss Sakurada! She'd had a _hole_ stuck through her before your wish, and afterwards she was fine! I've been looking up stuff in newspapers since I started remembering things, and the _thousands_ of people who were dead in Kota Kinabalu before your wish are _fine_ now!"

"...Oh," Usagi said, still choked up, but no longer sobbing out of control anymore, "I feel really dumb for trying to avoid thinking about all this now."

"That _was_ kind of dumb," Rei said, rolling her eyes and tentatively hugging the blonde, "You should have at _least_ talked with someone about it. Did you, Minako?"

"No," Minako said, shaking her head, "But I've actually dealt with stuff like this before; I still haven't made up my mind if I want to talk to Jaeger or Mrs. Gates about all this."

"About all _what?_ " Makoto asked, clearly frustrated, "I don't know what you're all talking about!"

"Some really bad stuff happened while we were in Malaysia," Ami said quietly, "Usagi was passed a powerful magical artifact, and used a wish to stop it. It looks like she accidentally made people forget about magic too."

"You'll remember sooner or later," Minako said, "I'm kind of surprised you're the last of us to do so."

"It's probably because what came _afterwards_ was so hard for her," Rei said gently, "Do we know any way someone else could get rid of the memory block?"

"I'm sure Jaeger or one of the Gates could," Minako said, drumming her fingers against the arm of her chair, "But that begs the question, do we _want_ to talk to them about this?"

"Yes," Ami said, her tone uncharacteristically decisive, "I will be talking to my mother, and she'll _definitely_ not be content not to talk to an expert about it, so we'll be talking with one of them anyways."

"Better than any reason I have not to," Minako said with a shrug.

"What _were_ your reasons not to?" Rei asked.

"Mostly so I could actually live like a high school girl again," Minako said sadly, "Being a magical detective was fun at first in London, but turns out, there's a reason adults try to protect us from this stuff."

"What happened?" Ami asked gently.

"The guy I was dating turned out to be the evil mastermind," Minako said with forced casualness, "He tried to kill me, then cursed me to live without love while he died."

The other girls _stared_ at her for long, _long_ moments, until Makoto flinched, and started clutching _her_ head in pain.

"Here we go again," Minako said with a sigh, "At least this should be the last time."

((()))

Revy had once thought that easy, well-paid work would be _great._ Now though, she was _bored out of her skull._ When the werewolf girl had offered terms, Revy had thought she'd been joking. A tenth of a ton of gold loaded onto the _Black Lagoon_ later, Revy wasn't laughing anymore, Rock was a little dazed, Benny was worried, and Dutch had that smug look he got sometimes when he thought he knew something someone else didn't.

"Why the hell does she want us moving _trees_ anyways?" Rock asked, breathing a bit hard as he hauled a potted sapling up from below deck, towards the small island off the coast of Madagascar they were making this delivery to. "I checked in the dirt in each pot, and there's no drugs or anything loaded in there."

"Probably some magic shit," Revy said with a shrug, "You think the Somali pirates might try if we go closer to the coast on our way back?"

"First," Rock said, glaring at her for a moment as he rested the pot against the ship's railing, "We're taking the Suez from the Mediterranean on our way back. Second, you being bored is _not_ justification for us getting into a firefight!"

"You should just be glad that it's pirates I'm trying to pick a fight with," Revy said with a smirk, "Not one of those destroyers we've passed on patrol."

"Dutch!" Rock shouted, "Revy's going stir crazy again!"

"Save it for when we hit South America," Dutch growled out of the bridge, "There's been trouble brewing there since we left Malaysia, and just because we're being well-paid, doesn't mean we want to waste ammunition."

((()))

"...So what do we _do?_ " Ami asked worriedly.

"Do any of you feel like playing with international politics?" Minako asked.

"That sounds _way_ out of our depth," Makoto said with an expression of disgust, "And all kinds of trouble."

"Why would we have to get into politics?" Usagi asked worriedly.

"Because what you did affected _everybody_ ," Minako said, "It's not just about _apologizing_ or something like that, it's about fear that you could do it again, and wanting to be able to use that kind of power against their enemies. Part of why I haven't told anyone I remember everything yet, is because being in witness protection is better than anything else I could think of."

"So we're supposed to just _hide?_ " Makoto said, frustrated, "Where does that plan end? Hiding forever?"

"I don't know," Minako said with a shrug, "Now that we all remember, we should talk about what we want in the long run."

"Nobody else is dying because of me," Usagi said, startling the others with the iron in her tone, "If they come for me again, I'll just go with them."

"Bad plan," Minako said, "Better idea, run to somewhere that the fight won't hurt anybody. One of the people protecting us probably knows teleport magic..."

"Then we get some of that," Usagi said, with a sharp nod, "And I'm learning to fight _properly_. Anybody against talking with the adults about all of this tomorrow?"

Ami shook her head, none of the others said anything.

"Right then," Usagi said, nodding sharply, then smiling abruptly, "What movie should we watch next?"

((()))

"Impressive barrier-work," Striker One admitted grudgingly, "I can see why they gave the Americans so much trouble."

"It's kept us from acing them by surprise," Striker Ten, the leader of Team Two said, "But that's about all it's going to accomplish. Eight and Three are going to take it down within twenty."

"As I said before," Nephrite said warningly, "While they are militarily inept, they are magically _powerful._ Do not underestimate them."

Then another blast of fire and arc of lightning smashed into the barrier protecting the cave entrance, and the time for words had passed.

((()))

"Why can't we just send in the droids?" Rubeus demanded.

"I was the one that lead the scouting raid on their compound," Petz said worriedly, "We could, but they'd just _slaughter_ them. Those are the Romans out there."

"I'll start setting barriers on as many droids as I can," Saphir said grimly, "We'll need to support them with magic from directly behind though."

"Fall back to the third chamber," Demande said as he strode into the cavern most of the Black Moon Clan was piled up in, "The bell-shaped one. We'll try to keep them bottled up in the tighter tunnel with droids, while we cast in support from behind. Wiseman, we'll need your countermagic for this."

"Yes brother," Saphir said, using a gesture of command to get the half-dozen droids he had with him to follow them back further into their improvised hideout, "Petz has fought these Roman soldiers before, and though none of us saw him at the attack on the entrance barrier, I am _very_ confident King Nephrite is with them."

"Why are you so certain?" Demande asked.

"He was the only of our foes able to successfully scry our location the first time," Saphir said, "It is a reasonable assumption."

"And it is better to assume the worst," Demande said, nodding sharply, steeling himself, "I shall duel him once more if this proves to be the case. Petz, what can you tell us about these Romans?"

"When I had surprise, a number of them died," Petz said, visibly trying to keep herself from hyperventilating as she focused on answering her liege-lord, "But as soon as their actual warriors arrived, they started cutting down the droids like wheat. All their trained combatants are skilled with this era's guns and magic both, some more the magics of the mind. Much like the Americans, they wear enchanted armor and use enchanted weapons; beyond that I'm not really sure."

"It is better than nothing," Demande said grimly, turning to face the entrance, and beginning to cast spells in preparation.

((()))

"Hold," the new Striker Four whispered into his radio, "Spell effect, fire-based. Probably a remote-activation area blast."

"Can you disable it?" Striker Five asked.

"Yes," Four said, "But they'll definitely know, and there's another one not far past it."

"Nine," Striker Ten called, "Get up there and handle the second while he handles the first."

"One," Five ordered, "Get ready with a disruption if there's another one past the first two."

"Affirmative," both of the strikers replied.

One was already second from point behind Four, as per usual squad formation, and took the time Nine needed to move up to tighten up the sling on his shotgun and loosen the hasp, freeing his hands to cast while preventing the weapon from swinging freely.

Disarming what amounted to magical traps could be very delicate work, especially when they were cast from unfamiliar styles; Praetorian sensor/trap specialists were _The Best_ though, and Striker One was fully confident in his Four and Nine's abilities. Less then twenty seconds after both were lined up, there was a wash of diffusing mana, and a good two seconds after _that_ , a third spell started trying to trigger itself, and One _flexed_ his magic, intercepting the activating spell matrix before it could work through to completion with a burst of Destruction magic.

((()))

"That's the last of the mines," Demande said grimly, "Expect them to appear presently."

His prediction proved valid, as seconds later a small, round device clattered around the last bend before the tunnel mouth. When the Americans had attacked their lunar base, the Black Moon Clan had not known what such things were; now, they knew all too well. Each closed their eyes, turned their heads, and clapped hands over their ears, until the expected burst of light and sound passed.

Eyes were opened, and gun and spell-fire ensued. Two of the Praetorians had rounded the corner during the provided distraction, and immediately fired on the dozen droids that were forming a wall of cannon fodder in front of the tunnel mouth. Neither went down, both flashing with magical barriers, though one was lightly damaged.

A torrent of spellfire erupted from the hands and mouths of the Black Moon Clan, slamming into heavy magical defenses laid on the two Praetorians on point in preparation, accomplishing little but distraction through their wards and enchanted armor. Saphir directed a pair of droids to engage the Praetorians in melee, and the point men were forced to focus on defending themselves over firing at the casters behind the wall of pseudo-golems.

Then Wiseman stripped one of the Praetorians of his combat buffs, and Praetorians further back smashed one of the droids in melee to shreds with some weapon the Black Moon Clan could not see. The stripped Praetorian used the opportunity to deftly withdraw around the corner, while the other point man dropped to a knee and braced.

A blast of pure concussive force sent the nearer droids flying, sowing discord into the ranks of mindless defenders, and another four Praetorians erupted into the freed-up space.

Demande smashed a fireball into the center of their formation, scorching each and every one of them, though again, wards prevented the blow from being decisive. By offensive action, at least; in retaliation, each of the Praetorians directed their fire towards _him_ while his allies were still readying spells, a cavalcade of gun and spell-fire crashing down upon him. An instinctive flick of a wrist raised a flaming shield, intercepting all but one of the incoming attacks; he winced as the last shot bit through the muscle along the edge of his side, but after the last battle, he had known such a thing would be coming.

Screaming in outrage, Saphir directed the droids to rush forwards, blocking three of the five Praetorians within view from being able to take another shot at his brother, though they again accomplished nothing more than distraction. Rubeus unleashed a fireball of his own, but it accomplished even less than Demande's had, simply washing fire across magically-hardened targets for an instant.

The Praetorians fired on Demande again, the two able to fire accomplishing precisely nothing, his shield shrugging off their blows; his retaliatory fireball on the other hand, achieved much, the Praetorians apparently not having expected him to successfully manage both defense and offense at the same time. The small glowing bead the spell produced detonated directly in front of the helmet of one of the two men not stuck in melee with Saphir's droids, _slamming_ him into the stone cave wall with crushing force and heat; two more were knocked ass over teakettle.

Only the remaining point man and one other remained standing, and after a moment, two of the three downed Praetorians disappeared in a flash of teleportation magic.

And an instant later, so did the assembled Black Moon Clan, as Wiseman took advantage of the momentary lifting of the Praetorians interdiction effect as they withdrew their own wounded, disappearing from the battlefield.

((()))


	14. Chapter 14

((()))

"Superintendant Sakurada?" Beryl half-said, half-asked curiously.

The attractive middle-aged woman (who probably would have been taken for a twenty-something if not for the fatigue on her face), turned to face Beryl immediately, eyes narrowing sharply for a moment, before the woman sighed and closed her eyes for a moment.

"Not anymore," she said quietly, "Fujiwara Beryl; what brings you here?"

"Dinner," Beryl said with a hint of amusement, gesturing to the somewhat classy restaurant they were in, "Much like yourself, I expect. Do you mind if I join you?"

"A distraction would be appreciated," Natsuna said tiredly, "How has life treated you since returning to Japan?"

"Mostly well," Beryl said with a forced smile, "Some nightmares and occasional bouts of depressive mood, but life moves on."

"For some of us," Natsuna said, before shaking herself, "Forgive me if I'm somewhat morose. I just received my 'pink slip' and I'm feeling rather adrift."

"What happened?" Beryl asked, her brow furrowing a little with concern, "You've never given me the impression of anything less than competence."

"Politics," Natsuna said with a bitter smile, "As I'm sure you can imagine, both my age and gender earned me more than a few enemies in the Diet; unsurprisingly, it's the traditionalists who have strong ties to the sort of Onmyoji whose loyalty can be trusted. Two of the different orders who came out of the woodwork to help deal with _current issues_ refused to work with me, and that gave my political enemies the last bit of weight they needed to get me fired."

"...That's terrible," Beryl said, scowling fiercely, "Is there any way I can help? I'm not very politically apt, but I _am_ a cousin of the Imperial Family, and perhaps someone I know would care to help."

Natsuna studied Beryl for a long, _long_ moment, her face gradually tightening more and more in focus on the other woman, before she eventually shook her head.

"The offer is appreciated," she finally said, "And perhaps a week ago, I would have taken you up on it, but at this point, it would take an order from the Emperor himself for me to have a _chance_ at reclaiming my former office. My replacement was installed yesterday, and institutional and bureaucratic inertia favors him now."

"I'm so sorry," Beryl said quietly, her face taking a melancholic cast, "I wish I'd known earlier."

"It's not your fault," Natsuna said glumly, "Nor your responsibility. I do hope that the security detail I assigned you has at least kept you from further trouble since our return to Japan?"

"Yes," Beryl said with a nod, "It's reassuring, and Yukimura is willing to talk to me when..."

"...When you wake up from nightmares?" Natsuna said with a wistful smile.

Beryl nodded.

"Don't worry too much about it," Natsuna said, trying to reassure the other woman in turn, "I've dealt with a number of kidnapping and hostage cases in the past, and while it isn't _easy_ , recovering from the trauma is eminently possible."

"It's not just what happened in Malaysia," Beryl said, shaking her head and chewing her lip worriedly, "It's… I have this feeling that I've done something horrible, not just _bad_ , but _utterly unforgiveable_ , unspeakably evil in every way. The worst thing I _remember_ doing was leading one poor boy on in high school, but the feelings I have after I wake up from the nightmares… it's like I've tried to commit _genocide_."

Natsuna once again stared at Beryl for long moments, saying nothing as she worked through two different conflicting sets of memory about the woman in front of her. In neither had she meaningfully known the woman, but what she had heard of her from sources she considered trustworthy could not have been more different. She was uncertain how to treat her, but in the end, she decided to focus on the way the red-haired version of Beryl had behaved when _not_ possessed, and lean on 'innocent until proven guilty.'

"I'm quite certain that even if _you_ didn't remember something on _that_ scale," Natsuna said, "Someone else _would_. But that aside, if you suddenly came upon memories, or found evidence, that you _had_ committed that scale of mass-murder, what would you do?"

"...Seppuku, most likely," Beryl said bleakly, "Unless there was actual evidence I could turn into the humans right court so I could be properly tried and executed. I could not live with myself if I was such a monster."

Natsuna was glad that Beryl was too absorbed in her own guilty conscience to notice the shiver that ran down her spine. She had dealt with depressive people before, on her staff, amongst arrested suspects, and amongst victims, but this was the first time she had seen someone who was seriously contemplating suicide even though she had no memory of why she should feel the need for such. It was evidence to her that, if nothing else, the _heart_ remembered what the mind did not.

"I know a number of trustworthy counselors," Natsuna said, "And given how open my schedule has recently become, I think I'll arrange a meeting."

((()))

"Jaeger," Makoto called, jogging across the house's entry hall to catch the man before he disappeared upstairs, "We'd like to talk to you."

"We?" Jaeger said, turning to see Makoto standing alone.

"Give them a minute," Makoto said, rolling her eyes, "Is the kitchen good?"

"Sure," Jaeger said with a shrug; a moment later a lightly-panting Minako jogged in the front door and waved while she started ditching her shoes.

"We all talked the other night," Makoto said as she preceded him into the kitchen, "About what happened in Kota Kinabalu."

Jaeger studied her expression, hopping up to sit on one of the counter-tops.

"You've broken through the memory block," he said with a slow nod as Minako entered the kitchen.

"We all have," the blonde said, "And we want to know what's going on."

"You'll have to be a bit more specific than that," Jaeger said as Makoto began pulling ingredients out of cupboards, apparently intending to make an early start on dinner.

"What _happened_ would be a nice place to start," Minako said, parking herself at one of the chairs around the large kitchen table, "What was that crystal Usagi used to change everything? How'd she manage it in the first place?"

"It's got a few names," Jaeger said with a shrug, "I can give you the overview, but I don't have a lot of first-hand knowledge, and I don't know where it came from in the first place. Are the other three following behind?"

"Yes," Makoto said with a nod, "They'll want to hear this too."

"Fair enough," Jaeger said with a shrug, "Minako, could you go see if Hotaru or younger-Usagi want to join in on this conversation? Makoto, do you want help with whatever it is you're working on?"

"I didn't know you cook," Makoto said while Minako left the kitchen to go upstairs and look for the younger two girls, "I would appreciate your help."

"I have some years of experience living as a bachelor," Jaeger said with a shrug as he slipped off the counter, "And I wasn't always a cat. What are we making?"

((()))

"Nephrite was right," Demande said, scowling fiercely down at his empty hands, "I _needed_ to be schooled in warfare."

"What are you talking about?" Rubeus said, "Sure, we retreated, but we did a hell of a lot more damage to them than they did to us, and _waaaay_ better than last time."

" _Exactly_ ," Demande growled, surging to his feet to stare the redhead down, "Do you not see just how much _we learned from one battle that wasn't completely on our own terms?_ We are _neophytes_ taking the first steps into veterancy; that we had so much to learn simply _proves_ this. And despite the infliction of some injury upon our enemies, _they_ retain the strategic initiative, the advantage of numbers, the advantage of familiarity with this _entire world_ , and as has been so thoroughly and importantly proven, _experience._ "

The forest clearing the Black Moon Clan had retreated to echoed with painful silence as Demande's last words, shouted more than spoken, struck home. The white-haired prince realized he was breathing hard, and spent a long few moments forcing himself to calm down before speaking again.

"Unfortunately," he continued, "We don't have the luxury of resting before our next engagement. Now that we are here on Earth, _any_ of the _many_ enemies that we have made has the ability to strike at us, and all that Nephrite needs to do, is drive us out of any refuge we erect to shield us from the scrying of the other Earth-bound factions. If fortune be against us, one of them will find us before my brother can even replace the wards that thus-far only he has seen through."

"What should we do then, brother?" Saphir asked.

"It is simple in principle," Demande said, taking a deep breath, "But risky. We must take the initiative."

((()))

"...Which is when Usagi used the wish," Jaeger concluded his recap of the conflict leading up to the 'Borneo Event,' "Which, with the magic space-rock behind it, was powerful enough, apparently, to rewrite major chunks of physical reality throughout the entire world. I'm still not entirely sure why so many people were revived, but my working theory is 'magical CPR,' and frankly, I don't know how long it takes the spirit to flee the body once it's critically damaged."

The girls (and two Mau who had joined them) were quiet, and only the soft sounds of Makoto working a pan over the stove staved off total silence.

"Any other questions?" Jaeger eventually asked.

"...What happened with Beryl?" Usagi asked, her voice subdued.

"...I suppose you would have been too distracted to see," Jaeger said, blinking in surprise, "Your wish turned her into a genetics researcher at Tokyo U, a cousin of the Imperial Family. Given how she reacted as soon as she wasn't possessed any more, probably a welcome relief; hers is the one _definite_ case where I hope she doesn't recover her memories anytime soon."

"How does that work?" Hotaru asked curiously, "Do you think my memories were changed too?"

"I don't know," Jaeger said with a shrug, "And it'd be kind of pointless for me to ask if you remember anything about magic from before the Borneo Event, wouldn't it?"

"Un," Hotaru said with a nod.

"As to how it _works_ ," Jaeger continued, "Basically, even very powerful magic is possible to resist. You lot, in particular, having magical augmentations anchored to your souls, have some 'help' for throwing off such effects, and most practitioners become pretty hardy of will, sort of as a necessity."

"So," Makoto said slowly as she finished her frying work, and removed the pan from the stove, "What happens from here?"

"Have any of you heard about the attacks that were happening around the world, or the explosions on the surface of the moon?" Jaeger asked.

"Yes-no-what?" The girls answered in a tangle of words.

"Usagi the younger there," Jaeger said, nodding towards the scarred pinkette, "Is a refugee from an unfortunate potential future. A group called the Black Moon Clan followed her into the past, probably hijacking the same spell, and have been looking for her ever since. As best I can tell, mini-Usagi arrived at the height of the eclipse, and they started hitting sites of high magical concentration the next day. Given the way the Black Moon Clan have been attacking everybody pretty aggressively since, _hopefully_ most have concluded that they were behind the memory-blocking affect, and they'll stop looking for us."

"And if they don't?" Minako asked.

"I'm not sure," Jaeger said, shrugging, "I'm still recovering from being crippled myself; I don't really have a better plan than 'stay in hiding until we know more.' Like where the magic rock went."

"You mean this?" the younger Usagi asked, carefully holding up a brilliant gem in the palm of her hand.

Jaeger's breath escaped him as his supernatural senses were bombarded by a sudden wash of power, and he immediately swept across the kitchen, sweeping up the pan Makoto had just emptied. As he moved he transmuted it into lead, then tipped the gem off of Usagi's palm, and bent the pan around it with his bare hands.

"Yeah," he said tensely, breathing deeply, " _That._ Whatever you were doing to hide it before, I recommend you start doing it again, and don't stop. Power is _still_ leaking off of it, and that's exactly what the Black Moon Clan is looking for."

"Sorry," Usagi said, laying a hand over the mashed orb of lead, then shivering as she retook metaphysical possession of the gem over several long seconds.

"We all make mistakes, kid," Jaeger said, visibly relieved as he started unbending the pan back into something resembling a normal shape, "Let's just hope nobody was looking for that _right then._ "

"What the hell?" Minako demanded, jabbing her finger towards the pan Jaeger was working over, "You're strong as an ox! How are you _doing_ that?"

"Magic," Jaeger said with a shrug, starting to press the lead pan against the countertop to help flatten the bottom, "And a fair bit of raw strength. Makoto could probably do it too, if she pushed herself."

"What?" Makoto asked, starting a little as Jaeger transmuted the pan back into stainless steel, " _How?_ "

"You've been doing it almost entirely subconsciously," Jaeger said, "But you've been using awakened ki ever since I first met you. It's not _normal_ for girls to be able to overpower boys who outmass them, you know."

"...I always thought they were just half-assing things," Makoto said, looking a little stunned, "Is that why?"

"You were able to punch clear through bullet-resistant body-armor?" Jaeger said wryly, "Yeah. You're a natural, and dedicated on top of that."

"Is that why you treat her as more trustworthy than the rest of us?" Usagi (the older blonde one) asked, butting into the conversation for the first time.

"...Something like that," Jaeger said, looking a bit uncomfortable, "It's more I trust her to know _what to do_ if things suddenly go to hell in a hand basket. While you're all, at worst, as responsible as expected of teens your age, Makoto has experience having to take care of herself alone, _and_ how to read both a bunch of people spoiling for a fight, _and_ their actual fighting skill."

"That's rather condescending towards the rest of us," Rei said a bit stiffly.

"Yes and no?" Jaeger said a bit awkwardly, "With the exception of Usagi the younger there, you're all _young adults_ rather than children, and I respect that, which is why we've been having this conversation rather than me having one with your parents, though I will be telling them all about this later. But you're also _very inexperienced_ as adults; only Makoto here has experience needing to actually take complete care of herself day-to-day, and even she isn't responsible for her own income. And that's before you even _get_ into all kinds of other, less-obvious things that you now have the _capacity_ to start learning, but..."

" _But?_ " Rei demanded, visibly irritated.

"But I can't really go much further in generalities," Jaeger said, "You in particular, I have seen have at least some grounding in philosophy and theology, of the Shinto variant anyways. Makoto, like I said, has experience living on her own; Minako has experience with being a night-time vigilante of all things, and Ami's a genius to the actual, direct definition. Usagi has her odd moments of social-savantness-slash-inspiring leader stuff. If we rolled the older five of you together, you'd actually make a pretty well-rounded adult, albeit some sort of weird kung-fu superhero or something. You've all got time to learn the rest, too. I mean, it's really not fair to compare the capabilities of a young teen to a mature adult, there's just too much time to mature, learn, and get experience for it to be a reasonable comparison."

"...You like to talk a lot," (older) Usagi observed.

"Cross-cultural communication," Jaeger said with another shrug, "It's better to over- than under-communicate."

"Jaeger," Makoto said, stepping around to look the man directly in the eye from close range, "Like you said, I'm used to being in charge of my own life. I want to be involved with deciding what happens to me."

"Sure," Jaeger said with a shrug, "We're not forcing you to stay here, or attend Wilds'. You can leave if you want."

"That's not what I mean," Makoto said, shaking her head, "I mean _actively._ I don't want to just be asked if I agree with a plan or want to leave, I want to be involved with _making_ plans for how to deal with all of these things."

"And so do the rest of us," (older) Usagi said, nodding sharply, "We're people, not pawns."

"...That's fair enough," Jaeger said, "Last time around, you were all kind of in shock from the fighting, but yeah, if it's not a time-crisis, I'll pull you in with the adults on making plans."

((()))

"...so on top of him having a raw deal of it," Jaeger finished, "He's also got a _crazy_ work ethic. Any thoughts on how we could help him out?"

"I assume you're asking me," Lynette said, "Because the obvious solutions are rather obstructed by his fierce independence?"

Jaeger nodded.

"Sounds like someone I know," Lynette said with a faint smile, "Saeko and I were looking at replacing Wild's resident physician and assistant, though that would take a substantial cut in pay to work out. We could try to slot him in as a CNA in training instead, and have the two of us work on half-week rotations. It's probably something Wild's administration would find more palatable, anyways."

"And it'd leave you time to keep on with your research?" Jaeger asked.

"It'd leave us _both_ time to keep on with our research," Lynette retorted, "Saeko is a very driven woman in her own right. She might be interested in coming on board with us long-term."

"...That'd be a pretty massive commitment," Jaeger said after a long moment, "On _both_ of our parts. We don't even _have_ an agenda for after the current crisis is resolved."

"I know," Lynette said, shaking her head slightly, "I suspect we'll have plenty of time to see if she's actually up for it."

"And you want to teach her magic in the meantime," Jaeger said with a sigh.

"Yes," Lynette said with a nod, "She has the mentality for channeling primal forces much as I do."

"That's up to you," Jaeger said, rubbing his temples tiredly, "I'm not sure if just anybody can learn magic on this plane though. My own abilities have been _different_ ever since I arrived."

"We'll see," Lynette said, shrugging, "In the meantime, do you have a way to get ahold of this Jae-Gu?"

"I can give you his address," Jaeger said with a shrug, "Aside from that, look for the only other male student at Wilds'."

((()))

"Hey!" Moon Yong called, stepping out the gates of Wild's Academy just after Caitlyn pulled up on her bicycle, "You're the new guy's woman, right?"

"Hah!" Caitlyn said with a snort, before pulling her motorcycle helmet off, "I wish! Boss has a hangup about romance."

"Girl," Moon Young said, giving Caitlyn a _look_ , "You spend way too much time with him for someone who _isn't_ your man, and I've seen how he looks at you."

"What?" Caitlyn said, "Looks at me how?"

"He _trusts_ you girl," Moon Young said with a smile, "And talk about your fight with Haneul is _all over_ campus. She's not a lightweight, you know, and that's the kind of story Wild's girls get all bothered about. It's actually what I wanted to talk to you about."

"...Okay?" Caitlyn said, a little irritated, "What, you want a shot at dating Jaeger too?"

"No," Moon Young said, laughing as she shook her head, "Like I said, I've _seen_ how he looks at you. No, one of my friends, Queen, she's the kind of girl who's _hungry_ for a fight with someone who can actually keep up with her, so I wanted to see if you'd be up for another friendly spar."

"...Can't say I don't like the sounds of that," Caitlyn said, honestly somewhat intrigued, "She put you up to this?"

"No," Moon Young said, "I'm just being a little proactive. Also, I _miiight_ want to take a shot at you myself."

"Jaeger's mentioned you," Caitlyn replied, "Head of the Boxing team, and Makoto thinks you're pretty good. Queen's supposed to be the _best._ "

"Pretty much," Moon Young said with a shrug, "I'd say Dal-Dal and I give her a run for her money, but yeah, she's generally thought of as the best."

"You do know that I was taught to fight as a way to actually kill people, right?" Caitlyn asked.

Moon Young reared back a little, caught completely off guard by the larger girl's words.

"I know how to hold back," Caitlyn continued, "Like I did with Haneul, but I learned how to fight to _break_ people, not to score points on a scoring system."

"...that's _rough_ ," Moon Young said, sizing up the tall, muscular western again, "Why?"

"Mobsters killed my parents when I was a teen," Caitlyn said, "And I had to learn how to fight scum like that."

" _Ouch_ ," Moon Young said, "Us Wild's girls learn how to fight for real too, but more to beat someone into _submission_ , rather than to kill them."

"When they've got guns," Caitlyn said, shaking her head, "You don't have the luxury of taking them down soft. You sure you still want a round with me?"

"More than ever," Moon Young said, grinning broadly, "And I know Queen will too."

((()))

Nephrite's desk shuddered, a tremor vibrating through the entire palace, rattling his chair and him in it as well. He frowned down at the document he had just been in the process of signing, removing the bit of errant ink from it, before a second, more forceful tremor interrupted before he could attempt to finish his signature. Dismissing the magical pen in his hand with a gesture, he stood from his desk and stepped back to the window of his office. After no immediately visible sign of disturbance greeted him, he closed his eyes and focused on extending his supernatural senses.

It took only a few moments for him to pick up on the modest flux of earth magic behind him, emanating from the far side of the Congo River, from within the Republic of Congo, the neighboring nation to his own Kingdom. And being across the border, it lay outside of the wards he had erected; further, because whoever was assaulting his palace was launching non-magical lumps of stone, albeit ones _moved_ by magic, his wards had detected nothing.

"Clever," Nephrite declared, opening his eyes and summoning an array of images overlaying his windows, giving him a variety of different perspectives on the far side of the river, "But ultimately nothing more than the work of a competent journeyman."

A series of gestures magnified his viewpoint, showing the entire assembled Black Moon Clan on the bank of the Congo River, two of them taking it in turn to raise chunks of stone from the riverbed, then launch them towards Nephrite's palace. Nephrite frowned; while he had begun forming the basic programs to identify and recruit magical talents within his new kingdom, the programs had not even gone into _effect_ yet, much less produced the sort of skilled battlemages that would be necessary to face foes of such power, particularly given the ability to learn they'd shown of late.

"It would be a shame to lose the palace," Nephrite said with a sigh, "I suppose I'll have to take some mildly desperate measures. I'll have to make this quick."

((()))

"...And to tie things up," Lynette said, glancing meaningfully at Jaeger to indicate he should continue keeping his mouth shut until questions were asked, "Your daughters have all expressed a desire to take part in any future planning; speaking as someone introduced to magic later in life myself, I understand how disconcerting this can all be, so we're here now to make ourselves available for any questions you have about all this."

For a few moments, the various parents of the Senshi glanced back and forth between each other, Saeko Mizuni being the first to speak up.

"Caitlyn was sixteen when you gained custody of her, yes?" Saeko asked.

Lynette nodded.

"Since you have some experience with all of this then," Saeko continued, "Do you think we can practically protect our children by trying to keep them separated from all of this?"

"...No," Lynette said, shaking her head, "If they weren't _Talented_ maybe they could avoid further run-ins with the 'world behind the veil,' but given they're not just Talented, but _very_ strongly so, they will, at a _minimum_ , be subject to recruitment attempts for the rest of their lives. Far more likely, someone will try to abduct and use them if they don't learn to use their abilities for themselves."

"...About what I expected," Saeko said with a sigh, "It's part of why you picked Wilds' as your first candidate school, isn't it?"

"More a happy coincidence," Jaeger said, butting in on the conversation for the first time, "While some nations are reasonably stable, on the whole, the magical side of society is a lot closer to the Warring States era of Japan, than the current one. If you're seen as weak, you'd better have a strong patron, or someone will move against you just because they can."

Lynette sighed, but didn't try to 'gentle' Jaeger's words. Some points _did_ need to be more bluntly made.

Other questions ensued, but the only one that really mattered had already been answered.

((()))

"Good evening gentlemen," Nephrite said with a smile, "How's life as incarcerated terrorists?"

"Low-stress," Jadeite replied, looking up from where he was lounging in his cell, reading a magazine, "How's life as the King of the Congo?"

"High-stress," Nephrite said with a smirk, "And I'm recruiting. Any of you gentlemen interested in a new job?"

The three other Heavenly Generals laughed.

((()))

"Pretty ritzy," Caitlyn said as she hopped over the ropes, into the private boxing ring at Queen's residence, "You have this put in?"

"It was installed before I took up Martial Arts," Queen said, shaking her head slightly as she tied back her long blonde hair, "Which arts are you practiced in?"

"Whatever Jay could teach me," Caitlyn said with a shrug as she removed her shoes, " _Upepo wa Jangwa_ , _Stillingar Solar_ , and I picked up some Muay Thai and Kempo on my own."

"Moon Young said you learned to fight to kill, not as a sport," Queen continued, catching a pair of light gloves tossed to her.

"...Pretty much," Caitlyn said, catching the second pair of gloves Moon Young tossed into the ring, "I know how to do point-fighting though."

"I would prefer a more serious match," Queen said, finishing with her gloves, and turning to level an imperious gaze towards the muscular western woman, "Pulled blows, of course, but target and defend as though you were in a fight for your life."

"...You sure about that?" Caitlyn asked, adjusting the gloves on her hands, "I actually _have_ fought for my life before. You hear what Jay got his head injury from?"

"Rumor around the school is a bullet wound," Moon Young threw in, from where she had perched on one of the ring's corner posts, "Protecting you."

"It was a gunshot, yeah," Caitlyn said, "That one wasn't to protect me though. I've crippled people before, you sure you want to take that risk?"

" _Certain_ ," Queen said, staring across the ring at Caitlyn, "If you do not bring your best, there is no purpose."

"I can respect that," Caitlyn said with a nod and a grin, shaking out into a loose combat stance, "And don't worry too much about hurting me. I'm a tough girl."

Queen nodded, and shifted smoothly into her own combat stance, eying Caitlyn carefully.

"Well," Moon Young said with a grin, "Since the pre-battle banter is all wrapped up… _start!_ "

Caitlyn advanced immediately, not rushing, simply striding forward in a balanced guard until Queen was within reach, then probing her defenses with a sharp right jab.

Queen read the attack, shifted slightly and twisted her left arm in a deflection, while bringing her own right jab, which smacked into Caitlyn's left guard. Smiling a little, Caitlyn pushed in with an alternating flurry of jabs, the first two of which Queen deftly deflected, the third snaking just past her right forearm to land with modest force on the blonde's upper arm.

Focus consuming her, Queen whipped her body around to deliver a crescent kick; Caitlyn moved with her, ducking under the kick and spinning around to deliver a backward elbow towards Queen's chest while she was off-balance. The champion martial artist captured the blow with both hands, absorbing the momentum into her own spin, and bringing her other leg around to _just_ break past Caitlyn's hastily-raised guard and clip her shoulder.

Both broke away to disengage, Queen's eyes blazing, Caitlyn grinning as she nodded a short salute to her opponent before wading back in for another clash.

Faking then breaking her prior pattern, Caitlyn feinted another jab, before spinning into a lightning-fast roundhouse, which even catching with a two-armed guard, knocked Queen flying.

For a moment, Caitlyn lowered her guard, fully aware of just how hard she'd hit the more slightly-built Korean girl, but Queen rolled up out of the 'throw,' twisting back to her feet and immediately moving to counter-attack.

A flying roundhouse crashed into Caitlyn's defenses, bruising her forearm, and was followed by a spinning backfist which was barely deflected away from Caitlyn's head, and lead into a high kick that Caitlyn was finally able to block properly, stopping Queen's offense.

A single sharp uppercut slammed into Queen, knocking her staggering back, though she was able to properly deflect the following roundhouse, Caitlyn's ensuing kick sent Queen flying towards the ropes again. This time, Caitlyn didn't lower her guard, even if Queen's roll-out was less smooth than the first, the kick that had just landed on her hip noticeably affecting her movement.

"You're pushing your body past its limits," Caitlyn warned as Queen moved in for another attack "You're-"

"That's what makes it worthwhile!" Queen snapped, launching into another flying kick, smashing cleanly through Caitlyn's guard for the first time that night, and sending the larger girl bouncing off of the ropes.

Caitlyn twisted around like a snake, rising smoothly back to her feet and fading back for more distance as she took a deep breath, allowing her Ki to flow into the reinforcement she used in proper battles.

Queen, however, simply stood and stared down at her hands, her body radiating a golden-yellow aura, while arcs of red and blue energy danced across the surface of her skin, centering around her hands and feet.

"Congratulations," Caitlyn said, edging around carefully so she could look the other young woman in the eye, "You've just awakened your Ki."

((()))

"You can stop knocking," Nephrite called as he stepped out of a door that hadn't existed a moment ago, and onto an ornate stone balcony that formed as he walked out onto it, "I am quite aware of your presence, I simply have no intention of inviting you inside."

Every single member of the Black Moon Clan present fired a spell at the King of Congo; a shield of coruscating energy leapt into existence in front of Nephrite, cleanly, almost contemptuously deflecting every beam, bolt, and blast of magical energy, excepting only for that sent by Wiseman.

Wiseman's beam of dark energy corkscrewed through the air, twisting around Nephrite's shield, shattering on a second layer of magical defense, flushing out the existence of an ephemeral suit of armor laid over Nephrite's uniform. The armor glowed brightly for a moment, before swiftly fading out of visibility as it absorbed the energy of Wiseman's assault.

"You'll have to do better than that," Nephrite said with a faint smile, "While I do laud you taking the initiative, you do not yet appear to have learned how to properly overcome fixed defenses."

Then a _literal army_ of golems erupted from the river below, and began awkwardly clawing their way up the wall of the Royal Palace.

"Not bad," Nephrite said with a respectful nod, "I do believe I shall have to actually exert myself."

((()))

"He's too confident," Demande said tightly, furiously studying the palace from afar, "Wiseman, did your spell land because of your skill, or our combined efforts overwhelming him?"

"A combination of the two," Wiseman said, "And I would point out, he _always_ presents a confident front."

"And he has yet to lack justification for it," Demande said tightly, before glancing around at his assorted followers, "Saphir, another double-score of Droids to watch our perimeter here, Ladies Akashiya, work with him and provide oversight for the Droids. The rest of you, we shall move out over the river and attempt to press him from multiple sides while my brother and the ladies keep our retreat options open."

((()))

Nephrite amused himself by sending alternating arcs of electricity and blades of wind down at the golems working their way up the wall of his palace. More than a dozen had already managed to enter through various windows, but he cared little. It had taken him a day to raise the structure, and though the various adornments had taken longer to fill in, they were nothing more than replications of works of art long since destroyed either way. No, cutting down on the enemy cannon fodder while letting them feel like they were accomplishing _something_ was far more important.

He kept one eye on the Black Moon Clan as he worked, and felt some vague stirrings of respect as they actually bothered to fortify their position a little before splitting off their better offensive mages for an attack run. A month ago, they'd not have bothered, and a small part of him felt jealous that they'd managed to learn that lesson without paying a price in blood, a luxury that he himself had been denied so many years ago.

Still, while the Black Moon Clan were learning, they were pitted now against not just _one_ mind with decades more military experience than they had combined, but _four._ Once Demande and his other three strikers had flown out halfway over the river, Kunzite and Zoicite struck.

((()))

For a moment, the air along the northern bank of the river had a heavy weight to it, and Saphir, his mind casting back to the charged atmosphere that came with Nephrite's lightning spells, hastily erected a large-area defensive shield.

Contrary to his expectations, rather than a blast of charged particles, a storm of ice, sleet, and snow abruptly erupted into existence, assailing the clan members with cold and wet. Petz shrieked as her footing was fouled, and she crashed into the ground, splattering into a puddle of icy mud that hadn't been there just moments before.

Saphir's mind churned furiously; he had no facility for Fire magic, though that wasn't the only way to generate heat, transmuting the correct materials, particularly with a reactant like water present would allow-

A second wave of magic crashed over their position, this one less overt, but no less devastating; it flailed against Saphir's spirit for a long moment, but he managed to resist its grip. The Akashiya sisters were not so fortunate, and he watched in horror as their movements slowed to a crawl, earthen magic dragging at their every gesture in movement. Berthier was hit so hard by the effect, that he wasn't certain if she was even _breathing_ anymore.

An attempt to counter the effects of the spell sprang forth from Saphir's mouth and hands almost before he had consciously chosen to do so; the attempt was brushed aside with almost humiliating ease by whoever had cast the spell, and Demande's younger brother found himself desperately struggling against fear, knowing he was utterly outmatched.

He hadn't even _seen_ his new foes yet.

((()))

"I win," Nephrite said, his tone kind, almost _gentle_ , "You're no slouch yourself, but-"

He gestured across the river, and Demande, who had been gathering mana for a spell of greater potence hesitated for a second, before shifting his angle of flight so he could look back without taking Nephrite out of his line of sight altogether.

A miniature blizzard covered his brother's position, the wind-driven snow so thick he couldn't even _see_ any of his subordinates any longer. With magic so powerful present, Demande was shocked he hadn't sensed it the moment it was cast, but between the spells already flying about, and the abnormal skills Nephrite had already demonstrated, part of him wasn't surprised in the least.

"-As usual, I did not come alone," Nephrite continued, his tone shifting to something more commanding, "Now, show you can learn to see past your pride also, and surrender."

Demande's eyes snapped back around towards Nephrite, his fist clenching with gathered mana as he studied the older man sharply, now close enough that magical vision enhancement was no longer necessary. Nephrite stood, expression sharp with focus, but betraying nothing else, neither concern, nor anger; his posture was sharp, not quite that of a soldier at attention, but not altogether removed from it.

The man looked like a _King._

Demande gritted his teeth, and wrestled with himself. From the moment he'd first set eyes upon him, the man from the distant past had shown nothing more than brief surprise, irritation, or amusement. He had never raged, he had never shown fear, and he had _never_ shown weakness. When Demande thought of the men and women he had brought with him from the distant future, only his brother could come close to matching the King's composure, and couldn't even _approach_ the man's surety of self.

"Very well," Demande said grimly, "What are your terms?"

"You cannot be serious!" Wiseman cut in before Nephrite could respond, "We need only the Crystal, and we will be able to triumph over him!"

"We cannot _find_ the Crystal," Demande snapped, turning to glare at his advisor, "For all we know, he has it _himself_ , and it is through this that he has been able to defeat us at every turn! When we fought the Queen and her lackeys, they were _soft._ They had not faced anything more dangerous than a disgruntled hedge-mage in _centuries._ The people of this time _know_ war, they have fought it ceaselessly for _centuries_ , and after our initial advantages were removed, they have bested us at _every turn._ We are _finished_ Wiseman!"

"No," Wiseman said, shaking his shrouded head sharply, "If we can just find the Crystal, we can overcome them all!"

"Nephrite," Demande said, turning away from Wiseman, "King of Congo, what are your terms for our surrender?"

"They are not harsh," Nephrite said, shaking his head, "A term of five years of either imprisonment, or penal service, overseen-"

A bolt of black energy erupted from Wiseman's hand towards Demande's heart.

((()))

"Ki..." Queen said, showing rare curiosity as she studied interwoven arcs of red and blue energy moving between her hands, "The energy of life, of the body, spoken of in some branches of classical Eastern philosophy. Fictionally used to empower elite practitioners of martial arts or magic."

"Pretty much," Caitlyn said, circling around somewhat conspicuously so she could look the blonde in the eye, "Everybody has it, not everybody knows how to use it. With training, especially if you're talented, you can do some pretty crazy stuff with it."

"Like what?" Queen asked, looking up at Caitlyn as Moon Young leapt up into the ring.

"Like-" Caitlyn began, before collapsing into nothingness, then exploding into existence just inches from Queen, "-This."

Queen leapt back instinctively, putting a good meter and a half of clearance between the two of them again, though she held off on the urge to attack.

"You've been holding back against me," Queen said, her mask slipping back into place.

"Eh," Caitlyn said holding up one flat hand, and wiggling it side to side, "I've deliberately _not_ been using my skills with Ki, but as far as purely physical strength and skill go, I've not been holding back a whit."

"And if you were to stop holding that back?" Queen asked.

"Things'd get a lot uglier," Caitlyn said, smiling toothily as flames began running down her arms, a steadily-thickening sheath from her biceps down to her hands, "Literally, seeing as how I'm a Werewolf and all."

" _What?_ " Moon Young cut in, "Seriously?"

Caitlyn allowed her flames to extinguish, before tugging up her sleeve to show a faint pattern of scars on her arm, one shaped like the jaw of a massive dog.

" _Deadly_ serious," Caitlyn said, turning a hard stare towards each of the girls in turn, "When I was sixteen, I was a prissy girly-girl whose biggest worry was who I'd go to Junior Prom with. Then the 'veiled' magical society barged into my life, and my parents were killed, then I was kidnapped and raped. Jaeger probably killed more than two hundred people tearing down the crime syndicates having the turf war I was caught in the crossfire of, and once I was over the initial shock, I decided I never wanted to be weak again. What you've just gotten yourself there-"

She nodded towards the energies gradually fading out of sight around Queen.

"-Is a great and wonderful thing, but there's an entire society of people who use magic, Ki, all that stuff, and it is _not_ safe."

Moon Young's expression, while not quite _afraid_ , clearly showed that she was taking Caitlyn's warning seriously. Queen, on the other hand…

Caitlyn grimaced; the younger woman was very good at hiding her feelings, but Caitlyn was better at reading them. The tall blonde was _fascinated._

((()))

Something niggled at Beryl's mind as she archived the latest set of gene sequences. It wasn't just that she'd 'seen them before,' because given the sheer amount of repetition involved in thousands of four-character sequences, she _had_ , and this felt different. It felt more like she was coming to consciously understand something she'd unconsciously known _in part_ for… a very long time, one way or another.

Given she was twenty-something (do _not_ ask a lady her age!), the way 'a very long time' resonated in her head felt off. Off in the manner by which calling stale bread and fossils both 'old' was 'off' in the lack of appropriate relative scale it represented.

"What are you doing?"

Beryl didn't jump, but she _definitely_ flinched at the unexpected voice right behind her. Glad that her tea cup was long since empty, she turned her chair to see an adorable little girl, anywhere from eight to ten (or maybe some other age, Beryl wasn't the best at judging the intermediate years of childhood), staring at her curiously.

"Cataloguing results from genetic studies," Beryl said, "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for Dimi," the little girl said, glancing around at the lab curiously, "He's supposed to work here."

"'Dimi?'" Beryl said, "I don't know anyone by that name; do you know his full name?"

"Endymion," 'Nelly' said with a smile as Beryl stood up and offered her her hand, "He's tall, and handsome, and he's gonna marry my niece. She's really cute, and does this thing with her hair that..."

Beryl considered what to do with the strange girl who _shouldn't_ be in the lab (it wasn't classified, but it _did_ require keycard access like all labs with expensive equipment), and concluded that helping her find whatever adult was responsible for her was probably the best thing to do.

"Sure," she said with an attempt at a comforting smile, "I'll help you find 'Dimi.' I'm Fujiwara Beryl, what's your name?"

"I'm Nehellenia," the girl said, turning to her and smiling brightly, "But you can call me Nelly."

((()))

 **QM's note: DunDun** ** _doooooon!_** **  
**  
We're moving into the finals here now.


	15. Chapter 15

**AN:** Right, entering the finals here, even if dice made things kind of weird. Also, I'll not be making any apology for the theological/philosophical bits in these last couple chapters; I am not ashamed of my creed. I _do_ wish that I'd handled earlier parts better though, so that these weren't coming in the wake of a bunch of overload earlier in the fic. One scene in this and one in the next chapter are pretty peak 'ideology/worldview in an SI fic.'

((()))

A beam of fire magic intercepted Wiseman's bolt of destruction magic; it was far from enough to overwhelm the vizier's spell, but it was more than enough to _disrupt_ it, causing the spell to unravel and fly astray rather than strike its intended target.

" _Chaos_ spawn," an eager voice boomed over the battlefield, "What a _lovely_ surprise."

A man wearing a uniform a palette-shifted mirror of Nephrite's own descended from above, whatever concealment spell had hidden him fading away, revealing an eager grin on an almost delicately-featured face beneath blonde hair.

"I am Jadeite," the man introduced himself, "And while I was _indisposed_ when Metallia was dealt with, I must say I am _most_ eager to score a little honor of my own against a similar foe. Have at you!"

The sky erupted into fire, so abruptly that Demande flinched away, then again as he found a steadying hand laid upon his shoulder.

"As I was saying," Nephrite said, smiling jovially at the younger man, "Five years in service or imprisonment, after which time, should you be judged trustworthy, citizenship and freedom within my Kingdom, though I cannot guarantee your safety outside of it, after all the enemies you have made."

"...It is enough," Demande said, somewhat shaken by the repeated rapid turnaround of events, wincing a bit before pulling out the black crystal earring in his right ear, "If you would clear your blizzard, I shall signal to my people that we are surrendering."

((()))

"Jaeger," Caitlyn called, catching him just before he went out the door, "You have a Bible somewhere?"

Jaeger looked up from where he was tying his shoes, visibly surprised by her question.

"...Yeah," he said after a long moment, "It's Korean and English. On my nightstand. Why?"

"I want to borrow it," Caitlyn said, "I've been thinking about some of the things you've said, and figured I'd probably get another angle on it from your favorite book."

"Go for it," Jaeger said with a shrug, "Take as long as you want."

"Thanks," Caitlyn said, nodding and waving as he headed out the door, before heading up the stairs herself.

((()))

"Song, Jae-Gu," the voice called, and like each of his classmates before him, Jae-Gu filed into the examination room.

The voice belonged to a middle-aged western woman; the new school Doctor. A second woman, who Jae-Gu thought was Japanese just going off of her looks, was seated at a computer on the far side of the examination room.

"Hello," she said with a slightly maternal and highly professional smile, "I am Lynette Gates, and my companion is Doctor Mizuno. I'm sure it won't surprise you that I've heard quite a bit about you by this point?"

"No," Jae-Gu said, snorting and rolling his eyes a little as he stepped over to the scale she indicated, "Is there a reason we're doing this all again? Aren't I on record from the pre-tournament physicals?"

"I suspect the Principle is simply putting us through the paces," Doctor Mizuno said, "And getting the students used to us."

"And getting _us_ used to the students," Doctor Gates said, smirking a little as she recorded his weight, "Your classmates certainly are a lively bunch. I hope they haven't bothered you too much?"

"Not so much now that Jay is here," Jae-Gu said, shaking his head, "At least the upperclassmen pay him more attention."

"So you've met my would-be son-in-law then," Lynette said, gesturing for him to seat himself and take his shirt off, "Has he tried to talk your ear off yet?"

"...Not exactly?" Jae-Gu said, "He does talk a lot though."

"That he does," Lynette said with a nod as she leaned over and pressed a stethoscope against his chest, and Jae-Gu took a deep breath without prompting, "He told me a little bit about you. For example-"

She withdrew the stethoscope, and stood upright, looking Jae-Gu straight in the eye.

"-He told me that he suspects you're taking care of two younger siblings without any parents in the house."

Jae-Gu scowled and looked away.

"As I'm your resident physician now," Lynette said, gently pushing his head further to the side, "Please Cough. I'd say knowing if you're trying to care for a family on a shoe-string budget, particularly with the kind of job someone can get at your age, that's a fairly serious health issue. Do you know how long-term stress affects health?"

Jae-Gu shook his head, not feeling particularly talkative anymore.

"Would you like to find out?" Lynette asked, stepping back as Doctor Mizuno approached with a tongue depressor and the weird tool used for looking in people's ears.

Jae-Gu shrugged, then opened his mouth as directed and let Doctor Mizuno look down his throat, then inspect his ears.

"You see," Lynette said, "It's terribly inefficient to have two doctors handling one patient at a time like this. Usually, we'd have a Nurse, an Orderly, or a CNA to assist us each with things like this, then we could handle two patients at a time. Towards that end, we're each going to be hiring an assistant from amongst the student population. Like most medical work, it pays pretty well compared to jobs of a similar skill level, though of course the requirements are higher."

As she spoke, she was raising and lowering his arms, inspecting the joints and gently probing at his flesh with gloved fingers.

"Orderlies, unskilled aides, and medical scribes," She continued, "Are generally those most likely to get trained as CNAs-"

"That's Certified Nursing Assistants," Doctor Mizuno interjected from where she was taking notes.

"-Nurses," Doctor Gates continued, "Or go on to become doctors themselves. In fact, medical establishments tend to actively encourage, sometimes giving full scholarships to, lower-level employees they have that they consider especially promising. The benefits for working in the medical field also tend to be some of the best, including things like free or low-cost treatment for employees and their family-members, and larger facilities tend to have things like on-site daycare."

She finished her physical examination, then stepped over to Doctor Mizuno, picked up a clipboard, and began a rapid-fire exchange of medical jargon.

"You're good to go," she said after a few moments, offering Jae-Gu a nod and a smile, "There are job apps just outside the door. Might want to consider it."

Jae-Gu bowed slightly in respect before he left, saying nothing.

He did pick up the little application forms though, and he was _definitely_ considering it.

((()))

"Damn," Jadeite scowled as he came to land on the newest balcony of Nephrite's palace, his uniform slightly ragged, "He fled when Kunzite moved up to reinforce. How long will it take you to divine his location?"

"That depends," Nephrite said, taking a sip from his teacup, then setting it aside before turning his attention to the man across the table from him, "Who amongst your group kept up the anti-scrying wards?"

"My brother," Demande said, doing an admirable job of hiding how weirded-out he was by the rapid turn-around of his circumstances, his gaze turned out over the river, where two more men wearing uniforms like Nephrite's were escorting his subordinates towards the Palace, "Wiseman never showed any particular skill with anti-divination measures, though apparently there is a great deal about him I do not know."

"Well then," Nephrite said with a smirk, "He may not be our problem at all. I shall release a general notice that I have accepted the surrender of the Black Moon Clan, but that Wiseman refused and is a fugitive, no longer protected from divination. This problem may solve itself without any further involvement on our part."

"And if I _wish_ further involvement?" Jadeite asked, raising an eyebrow at Nephrite.

"I'll ask they inform us if he is found, that we may dispatch a capture team," Nephrite said with a shrug, "I'd send you as my envoy on this matter, but I think it best we keep your existence secret just a bit longer. Now-"

He turned his gaze towards the half-dozen plus approaching mages.

"-We'd best greet our new senior teaching staff."

((()))

"Hello Mamoru," Beryl called, "Have you seen-"

"Dimi!" 'Nelly' called brightly, charging across the hallway they had just turned the corner into, and jumping up to grab hold of him, "Found you!"

"What are you _doing_ here?" Mamoru asked, staring down at girl he'd caught instinctively in confusion, "I thought you were..."

" _You're_ 'Dimi'?" Beryl said with some amusement, "However did you get that name?"

"I have no idea," Mamoru said, shaking his head, "Where did you find her?"

"In the lab," Beryl said, "I've no idea how she got in there; the lock _seems_ to still be working, but nobody else had opened the door recently that could have let her in."

"Last I saw her," Mamoru said, "The police were trying to find out where she came from."

"The moon, silly," Nelly said with a smirk, reaching up to tug at Endymion's ear, "Where's Rabbit? I haven't seen you with her lately."

"...Who?" Mamoru said, before shaking his head and sighing, "That aside, where do you live now? Do you know the number of someone we should call to come get you?"

"I live wherever I want," Nelly said with a shrug, "And-ohhhhh."

She had abruptly turned to face the Southwest, apparently staring directly at a wall.

"Someone's _angry._ "

((()))

Caitlyn glanced up from where she was sprawled across one of the couches in the house, taking notes on the parts of Jaeger's Bible that had the most wear on them, thus indicating what he most likely had read most frequently. Admittedly, there weren't many signs of wear on so new a purchase, but her senses were supernaturally keen, probably the only reason she had heard the soft footsteps approaching the living room door.

"Hey kid," she called, smiling gently at the pink-haired burn victim who was hesitantly poking her head into the living room, "What's up?"

"...They're looking for me," the girl said faintly, "I can _feel_ it. Can you fight?"

"Yeah," Caitlyn said, rolling off the couch and then sharply to her feet, "Do you think they'll find you?"

"They _shouldn't_ be able to," she replied with a shiver, "But they shouldn't have found me back in the future either."

"Right," Caitlyn said grimly, striding towards the front door, "Grab anything you want or need, we're hitting the road."

"...I don't have anything," the girl said, tugging at the collar of the simple dress she was wearing, "Even my clothes are you guys."

"Then go raid the kitchen for anything you think looks good," Caitlyn called, "And just grab some random stuff if you're not sure, we might need the food."

She paused for a moment to throw open the door.

"Blaze!" She called, "Saddle up for scoot and shoot, we might have a tail!"

((()))

Something niggled at the edge of Beryl's senses, and she stepped around Mamoru, just in time to see a twisting spiral of darkness expand out into a cloaked and hooded figure, one which stared at her with glowing eyes.

"The host," it said in a raspy voice, nodding at her slowly, "What happened to Metallia?"

"...Who?" Beryl said nervously, almost subconsciously backing away from the shrouded figure.

"Metallia," the raspy voice said more sharply, "The Essence of Hunger. The Diviner claimed to have slain her. What happened to Metallia?"

"I don't know who you're talking about," Beryl said, shivering a little, trying to ignore Mamoru furiously whispering at Nelly for her to run away, "The name sounds familiar, but that's all."

The eyes brightened for a few moments, then the figure nodded.

"A memory block," it said, stepping forward swiftly and raising a hand towards Beryl.

One of the Onmyoji abruptly appeared between them, deflecting the hand deftly. For a moment, the shrouded figure was clearly surprised, then it lashed out at the Onmyoji with an energy-shrouded hand. One blow was deflected, then a second, then the third slashed directly through the Japanese mage's chest; the man gurgled and then collapsed. Beryl turned to run, but was seized from behind before she could take a single step.

" _No_ ," Nelly said sharply, gesturing towards Beryl, and the being behind her growled, but did not release her.

"I said _NO!_ " Nelly shouted, her voice rattling the corridor in inhuman ways.

Mamoru nearly dropped her; Beryl staggered and struggled, and turned her head to stare back fearfully at the creature that still held her arm.

"Begone, reflection," the creature growled, "Or I'll shatter you."

Nelly screwed her face up in a pouty scowl, glaring at the creature for a long moment, until it raised a hand, crackling with energy, threateningly towards her.

" _Fine_ then," Nelly said sulkily, "Then _you_ can deal with the Court Sorceress of the Golden Kingdom!"

The girl gestured sharply again, but this time towards _Beryl_ , whose eyes widened as she _remembered._

((()))

"Suit up!" The order was barked through the PA in the Praetorians barracks, "Lead on priority target, teams teleporting out as they assemble!"

"Damn," Kazinski said, rolling out of bed with a groan, already tugging his pajama top off, "Do they never say _what_ we're going after?"

"Only if it's low-enough classification," Striker One said, moving towards his body-armor, "And sometimes, the fact that it's _not_ tells you all you need to know. This is probably the BMC again."

"Right," Kazinski said with a sigh, "Anti-magic loadout."

((()))

"Hey kid," the car said as Usagi climbed in, "Ever moved faster than the speed of Stupid?"

"...No?" Usagi the younger said, studying the HUMVEE as she strapped herself into one of the bench seats in the middle.

"Well," the vehicle said as it materialized a holographic driver in the front seat, which turned to smirk back at her beneath a _magnificent_ mustache, "I'm Blaze, and you're in for a treat then."

"Let's hit it," Caitlyn said as she jumped into the back, dropping a pair of duffel bags on the floor before moving to crouch in the turret well, and Hotaru slipped into the middle alongside Usagi.

"Rolling out!" Blaze called cheerfully, revving his motors hard enough to peel out of the quiet residential street, and start burning towards Wild's Academy, "What's our Sitrep?"

"I left a note about visiting the zoo," Caitlyn said, "Lyn has been notified we're in a potential hot situation, and she's already at the school, so we're basically trying to find the best roads to loiter on in case of trouble."

"Out by Camp Stanley then," Blaze said, "Low population; there's choppers and an artillery battery there."

((()))

Beryl's awareness returned to the outside world with a _snapping_ sensation, and found Wiseman closing with her again, just a few paces away.

Instincts from one of her three selves surged to the fore, calling a spell from her first self to the forefront of her mind, she wove magic into an essence-inverting spell, and hurled it at Wiseman. The disguised spawn of Chaos deflected the spell, so Beryl cast it again, this time reinforcing the spell with additional magic.

The second time, her spell bored straight through Wiseman's defensive magic, latched on to his essence, and _changed_ it.

Wiseman _screamed_ , more than just a voice rending the air as the fundamental nature of his existence was _changed_ , twisted into its opposite, taking a creature of Death, and making it _alive_ in a way that it had never known. Arcane gestures were hurled in Beryl's direction, but to no effect, his magic too drastically altered for him to muster any sort of intentional casting so swiftly.

"How _convenient_ ," a new voice cut in with a smirk, "You seem significantly more mortal than the last time I saw you."

Wiseman's body erupted into flames, his shroud instantly incinerated, and his new-found flesh rapidly charring and sizzling, inflicting a form of pain upon him he had never before known. The chaos spawn screamed again, and smashed its way through a window, tumbling out of the building to flee.

"Milady Beryl," the newcomer said, giving a respectful nod to the semi-recovered Court Sorceress of the Golden Kingdom.

"General Jadeite," Beryl said, returning the nod with one of her own.

Then Jadeite jumped out the window to pursue Wiseman.

((()))

"Slow day," Jaeger said, voice not _quite_ grumpy, "Do you get many like this?"

"It varies," Haneul said, "Some days are just boring by nature."

"It feels that way sometimes," Jaeger said, returning the shrug, "It doesn't help that I've been through a lot of this material before. At least I can use some brushing up on Korean. God help me if I had to take English, Arabic, or Spanish again; I'd probably just ask to test out of the class immediately."

"How many languages have you taken?" Haneul asked curiously around a mouthful of rice.

"A lot," Jaeger said with a shrug, "I traveled while growing up, which if you start young enough, is sort of like cheating. Not as much as having multi-lingual parents though, and I didn't have that. Do you-"

"Jay!" a loud voice called, and Jaeger looked over to see Lynette hustling out of the primary school building towards him, "I just got a call from Caitlyn. Get your butt over here."

Jaeger smoothly rolled to his feet and jogged over to meet Lynette about halfway across the schoolyard, where she took him by the shoulders and leaned in close.

"Someone might be onto younger Usagi," she said quietly, "Caitlyn and Blaze took her and Hotaru out on the road; they'll be staying mobile until the situation changes one way or another."

"How bad is it?" Jaeger asked.

"We don't know," Lynette said, shaking her head, "Someone is trying to scry them out; we don't really know much else yet."

"I'll check in with Natsuna," Jaeger said, nodding sharply, "See if anybody's made another pass at Beryl, or if something has shifted politically. I'll try to be back fast."

"Right," Lynette said, nodding sharply, "If we get hit in strength here, I'll try to use the fallback sequence. God Bless, stay safe."

"You too," Jaeger said with a nod, before turning and running off to find a bathroom to teleport out of.

((()))

Wiseman had not thought it possible. But then, he had not thought slaying Metallia, or any other incarnated concept was possible either. Perhaps the young fool had been right about arrogance, but that would not turn the Death Phantom aside from his path.

Even if he had been turned into some sort of living Death Phantom by the cursed Sorceress' spell.

The transformation had its upsides though, particularly in how it made any scrying attempt targeted at his natural self utterly incapable of success.

He escaped, and in spite of the damage he had sustained, he did not escape with nothing to show for his efforts. First, he had some idea how Metallia may, in fact, have been slain. Second, he had a small tuft of hairs plucked from Beryl's head while she was briefly staggered by Nehellenia's removal of her memory block. If he wished, he could use the hairs to retain a fix on her position from anywhere on the planet, or to direct him to the planet were he to leave it, but more importantly, they represented a sympathetic link to a greater casting that someone had engaged in just hours before the Black Moon Clan's arrival in the past.

Magic came slower, more awkwardly in his transformed state, and some of it came not at all, but that related mostly to his more direct spells for slaying things outright. He used his own divination abilities and the hairs as a focus to gain a track on the user of the Ginzuisho.

((()))

"I am _overwhelmed_ by the resourcefulness and competence of your new 'specialists,'" Natsuna said flatly as she glared at the police flunky maintaining the cordon around the crime scene at one of the research buildings of Tokyo U.

And flunky he was. The man certainly hadn't even been a _Lieutenant_ in the TMPD during Natsuna's tenure as Superintendent-General, much less a Captain, which meant he was either over-promoted, or just as likely, someone brought in because he had the right politics, rather than the right skills and experience.

"Private citizens interfering with a crime scene is a Felony offense," the flunky said, and Natsuna snorted.

"I am far more aware of the regulations and procedures than you are, _recruit_ ," Natsuna said sharply, "I also happen to be a personal friend of Fujiwara Beryl, who was undoubtedly the target of the attack that your team is here to investigate, and I am quite certain that she will wish to speak with a friendly face sooner or later. I will stay here, outside of your excessively-large cordon, like a good private citizen that has no desire to potentially foul evidence, and you will run along and inform Lady Beryl that I am here to speak with her."

"You do not give me orders, woman," the man said harshly, glaring down at Natsuna, "Now leave before I arrest you for obstruction."

"It's not like you to tolerate insubordination," A new voice declared, and Natsuna sighed, wondering whether the new arrival would make the situation better or worse, "Did someone already try a hit on Beryl? How is she?"

"Hello Jaeger," Natsuna said, turning to face the newcomer who had adopted the guise of an unusually (though not abnormally) tall Japanese man, even if his voice remained unchanged, "She's at least alive and not in critical condition, though I haven't been able to get in to confirm anything further."

"You are no longer a law enforcement officer," the police 'captain,' snapped, "You have no place here."

Jaeger walked directly up to the man, sizing him up as he approached, and deliberately closed just enough to tangibly loom over the smaller man.

"I see standards have dropped remarkably quickly since the change in leadership," Jaeger said, turning away from the officer dismissively, "Natsuna, since they'll probably try to hit you for whatever I do here, how subtly do you want me to do this?"

"Work within the letter of the law in all ways," Natsuna said, raising an eyebrow at Jaeger, "And the intent also when it applies to the defense of the citizenry."

"Telepathy it is then," Jaeger said with a nod, closing his eyes for a long moment before nodding again, "Beryl's on her way down to talk with us. Care to catch me up on what happened with you while we wait?"

"...I suppose," Natsuna said with a shrug, "Politics."

((()))

"Trouble!" Blaze barked, and Caitlyn immediately popped open one of the large duffel bags she had thrown in the back of the HUMVEE, and started assembling the Browning M2 stored within.

"What kind?" Caitlyn demanded.

"Somebody just pulled off an intraplanetary dimensional hop," Blaze shouted, " _Nasty_ harmonics, not anything that originated on this world, popped up fifty meters Southwest of us. We're leaving him behind for now, but odds are… nevermind, he's gone."

"What?"

((()))

Unlike Caitlyn and Jaeger, Lynette was _far_ from a combat specialist. She wasn't _incapable,_ but she was, by temperament and skill-set both, a support specialist. When Wiseman arrived on the grounds of Wilds' Academy, Lynette didn't even notice. When he entered the main building, silently slipping through the halls during class, she didn't notice. When he located the room Usagi was being remarkably studious in, then entered, she didn't notice.

When he punched Makoto through a window after the Senshi of Jupiter tried to stop him from dragging Usagi off, _that_ Lynette heard. So did half the school, and alarms were raised as Lynette abandoned the paperwork she'd been processing to rush towards the source of the noise. When she arrived in the classroom, she did _not_ find what she expected.

A half-shrouded figure, with some form of magic obscuring his features beneath a scorched and charred cloak, had pinned Usagi against the teacher's desk, and while there, was desperately trying to defend himself from the concerted onslaught of the teacher and about half the students, one of whom was using a pair of _swords._

Not practice swords, naked, sharp steel.

For a moment, Lynette hesitated, uncertain what to do in the given situation; her go-to offensive spell was indiscriminately area of effect, and… With a start, she realized that even as he was desperately blocking and deflecting a nigh-overwhelming onslaught of blows, he was still gathering magic to cast a spell…

Seconds later, he tried to trigger the spell, a teleportation effect, and Lynette slammed a counterspell more or less down his throat, causing a wave of tangible, almost visible magic to backlash through the room. For a moment, the attack ceased, as the various students of Wilds' reacting with instinctive wariness to the unknown affect, while Wiseman turned to glare at Lynette.

Then Makoto crawled back up through the window, rage on her face, and electricity crackling along her fists.

" _Damn_ ," Wiseman breathed.

((()))

"Hello Natsuna, Jaeger," Beryl said, an obviously brittle smile on her face, exhaustion wrapped around her like weighted chains, "What brings you here?"

"You may have forgotten," Natsuna said, raising an eyebrow at the younger woman, "But we had a lunch meeting scheduled for an hour ago. What happened?"

Beryl was silent for a moment, glancing discretely towards the police captain watching them all suspiciously.

"Someone tried to kill me," she said morosely, "And the rather traumatic experience joggled loose some memories I think I've been repressing since what happened at Kota Kinabalu."

"...Oh," Natsuna said, eyes widening slightly as she immediately realized just how large the scope of what Beryl said might be, "Are you alright?"

"..."

"Sounds like a conversation that should have some more privacy," Jaeger said, glancing around before nodding towards a bench sitting in the shade of a large tree, "Shall we?"

"It is not permissible to leave-" the officer started, but Beryl, Jaeger, and Natsuna all turned and _glared_ at him.

"-Please do not leave the area," the man finished somewhat squeakily, barely keeping himself from taking a step back.

Jaeger rolled his eyes and snorted; the two women just turned and walked over to the bench. Jaeger followed, seating himself on the grass in front of the bench, so that no one would have to try to talk past or around each other.

"You both remember what the Princess' spell with the Ginzuisho attempted to block?" Beryl asked quietly.

Jaeger and Beryl both nodded.

"I know that you are of the current age," Beryl said, glancing at Natsuna, before turning her attention towards Jaeger, "You, I do not know. I am fairly certain you are not a Mau, but I am uncertain as to what else you might be."

"I'm a cursed human from an alternate Earth," Jaeger said, "I was swept out of my home dimension a decade and some in the 'future,' and have moved through at least two planes before I came to this one."

Natsuna _stared_ at Jaeger, not having been aware of the nature of his origins; Beryl was surprised, but much less so.

"I assume that some magic from a different plane is what allowed you so much insight into the goings-on of this one?" she asked.

"Something like that," Jaeger said with a shrug, "I don't know for sure the whole mechanism, but I can explain my best theory if you want."

"Perhaps another time," Beryl said, shaking her head and shivering a little, "My own origins are almost as esoteric. I'm uncertain as to exactly how much time has passed, but I was born at _least_ five thousand years in the past; possibly more, depending on how much time was lost before history began to be adequately recorded once more.

"My perception of the passage of time during the span where I was possessed is very much distorted; I know that Serenity's spell forced a sort of suspended state, likely in one of the between-spaces conjoining dimensions, and the vast majority of the elapsed time was spent there. Nonetheless, some years, perhaps even decades, passed once I emerged back into our reality. It's..."

She trailed off for long moments; Natsuna and Jaeger both waited her out, glancing occasionally at each other or the distant officer to see if someone else intended to interrupt.

"The exact amount isn't important," Beryl finally said, shaking her head, "The point is, I'm from a different time altogether, having known a very different civilization than any of you. And… I'm responsible for its destruction."

Her voice broke up, moisture starting to cloud her vision, and Natsuna reached over tentatively to lay a hand on the other woman's shoulder.

"Did you deliberately seek Metallia out?" Jaeger asked.

Beryl shook her head.

"Did she, or it, seek _you_ out?" Jaeger pressed.

Beryl nodded.

"Did you try to fight her off?" Jaeger continued.

"More than once," Beryl said, exhaustion plain in her voice, "She came upon me three times, though the first I was too young to really understand or recognize the full scope of what I was dealing with. The second was shortly before I was appointed Court Sorceress, and at the time it was the most serious attempt by an extraplanar to gain a foothold in the Sol System in centuries, and was thought by many to likely be the greatest danger faced for generations. The third time..."

"Was after you found out Endymion was secretly courting the Moon Princess?" Jaeger asked gently.

Beryl turned to stare at him, eyes wide in shock.

"How do you _know_ these things?" she asked breathlessly, " _No one_ knew that!"

"...Basically, divine revelation," Jaeger said after a moment, "The point being, the third attempt came when you were mentally and emotionally exhausted, and you failed to fend her off that time?"

Beryl nodded mutely.

"By current social convention," Jaeger said with a sigh, standing up and moving over to seat himself on Beryl's other side, laying a hand on her other shoulder, "This would be the point where I tell you it's not your fault, that you were as much a victim as anyone else."

Natsuna winced slightly, but said nothing.

"But you probably wouldn't _believe_ that," Jaeger continued, "And even if you did, something about it wouldn't sit right with you. Let's speak in directly tangible realities for a moment here; did _you_ decide to attack Kota Kinabalu, or was that Metallia?"

"...Metallia," Beryl said, "My mind was there, but… It's hard to describe _properly_ , but possession is often described as being a passenger in your own body, except you're compelled to do slave labor even as a passenger."

"Not a happy state," Jaeger said, shivering a little, "Just having my mind sectioned off was bad enough. I know I'd be at least a little bit crazy if I went through what you did. That aside, would the attack on Kota Kinabalu have happened if you had successfully fought Metallia's possession off?"

"No," Beryl said, a little confused, and too sapped by her own feelings of guilt to really pursue the line of thought.

"Well," Jaeger said, "Let's talk in abstracts then. So, let's take a farmer. He grows food, and sells most of it to buy goods and services, which he then uses, in combination with the rest of his crop, to care for his family. Is he responsible for genocide?"

Both of the women just looked at him, not at all sure where he was going.

"Not going to take the bait for the obvious answer then," Jaeger said with a shrug, "The obvious answer is 'no.' The less obvious answer, is 'soldiers need to eat.' He sells his crops, a merchant or a corporation or whatever buys them, then sells them on, or something they've processed them into, to the army that goes out and commits genocide. Thus, it _could_ be said that he is contributing to that genocide."

Jaeger paused for a moment and winced, before carrying on.

"I'm fighting my own tendency to over-elaborate here, but the point is simple. While the farmer certainly did not _commit_ genocide, he certainly didn't fight to _stop_ it either, much less succeed. No sane court of law would find him _legally_ liable for committing genocide, but that doesn't mean that he is completely _morally_ justified either.

" _You_ didn't attack Kota Kinabalu. _You_ didn't destroy the Silver Millennium, or the Golden Kingdom. That was Metallia and her minions. You are not a genocidal mass murderer."

"But if it hadn't been for me," Beryl burst out, "It never would have happened!"

"Maybe," Jaeger said, shaking his head, "Maybe not. Maybe Metallia would have found another victim, maybe they wouldn't have been as well-placed, maybe they would have had to wait longer, but it certainly could have happened. Maybe the army would have just bought their food from different farmers. Regardless of what _could_ have happened though, with what _did_ happen, _you_ could have stopped what _did_ happen if you'd mustered the force of will to fend Metallia off."

Beryl nodded miserably dissolving into tears, and Natsuna glared daggers at Jaeger. Jaeger ignored the angry woman, and reached around to take Beryl by both shoulders, and turn her to face him directly.

"Beryl," he said, staring her in the eye with furious intent, " _I will not lie to you._ I could very easily have told you pleasant nothings to try to assuage your guilt, and part of me wants to, because that is _easier_ , but it's not the _Truth._ This isn't a case of 'not your fault,' it's a case of 'mostly not your fault,' but your conscience can't bear just 'mostly not,' can it?"

Beryl shook her head mutely.

"You feel _terrible_ ," Jaeger continued, "Like you're _worthless_ , like the world would be better off without you, like it would be better off if you'd _never been born_ , don't you?"

Beryl nodded.

" _That_ isn't true either," Jaeger said, leaning in to almost _glare_ at her, consciously keeping his grip on her shoulders from tightening too much, "The world is _not_ better off without you, and the world would _not_ have been better off if you'd never been born. You are fearfully and _wonderfully_ made, in the image of God with just that little bit of the divine in you, and the world would be a colder, darker place without you in it."

"But what I've _done_ to the world," Beryl almost bawled out, "To _so many people_ , _civilization itself_ was destroyed, even the _records_ have all been lost-"

"Even if you did it _on purpose,_ " Jaeger said fiercely, "You would _still_ have a unique and divine value. You have a value that _nothing_ can take away, but you _feel_ it has been taken away, both by your own failings, and how someone else has _violated_ you, yes?"

Beryl nodded.

"There are _two_ kinds of value to a man or woman," Jaeger said, "One given by God, one gained by our own words and deeds. Yes, you screwed up the second one, but _that's not the one that matters most._ You are a human being, with a worth and value and dignity that _cannot_ be removed from you, just assaulted, which it has been in a _most grievous way_. But _that is not the final word as to your worth and value._ "

"Then what is?" Beryl asked.

" _Love_ ," Jaeger said passionately, carefully leaning back a little as he realized he had been getting awkwardly close to the young woman, "It's _Love._ Do you remember, during the fight in Kota Kinabalu, while you were still possessed, and I had a moment while I was controlling my combat 'mech, where I could have attacked you, but I hesitated?"

Beryl's eyes lost focus for a few moments, then she nodded hesitantly.

"What happened then _utterly bewildered me_ ," Jaeger continued, "We were in the middle of a pitched battle, the fate of at a _minimum_ the city, and possibly the whole world at hand. Every instinct screamed at me to attack, to _press_ the offense and give you no time to recover as best as I possibly could. Do you know why I didn't?"

Beryl shook her head again.

"Because I heard _the voice of God Himself_ whispering in my ear to _wait._ I had no _clue_ why, and moments later, after my 'mech was destroyed, part of me thought I must have been mistaken in what I heard, because clearly, things had just gotten _worse_ , but do you remember what happened next?"

"...Metallia abandoned me," Beryl said slowly, "And tried to compel me to reforge the Ginzuisho for her."

" _Exactly_ ," Jaeger said, smiling fiercely, showing most of his teeth for a moment before pressing on, " _You were set free._ God is Omniscient, and I know He had all kinds of other reasons as well, He can think on so many more levels than I can, all at once, but my point is, _God Himself_ told me to hold back, to _wait_ , so that _you could be freed._

"Because _God Loves you that much._ "

Jaeger leaned back and released Beryl's shoulders, breathing deeply, and seeming to deflate a little as he stopped speaking for a few moments, leaving Beryl to process.

A few minutes passed. Birds chirped, the breeze shifted, Natsuna glared off the officer when he tried to approach.

"God's Love is unconditional," Jaeger said, gently laying a hand on Beryl's shoulder again, "And the _value_ He puts on us is without limit. You are _not_ worthless, you _are_ Loved, and that'll be true even if you play a part in the _next_ big civilizational collapse to happen. You are Loved, and if you can manage to remember that in spite of whatever happens in life, you'll be on the path towards finding out just what it was you were _really_ born for."

Beryl turned her gaze down towards her lap and wept silently. She said nothing, but the tension in her shoulders eased, and after a moment, she leaned over to rest her head on Jaeger's shoulder, and after a few minutes, fell into an exhausted sleep.

"I can see why Caitlyn is so taken with you," Natsuna said quietly, studying Jaeger consideringly, "And I have to say, that you sound like the sort of fanatic who is dangerous in a _very different_ way after seeing this side of you."

"I'm better at 'big brother' than 'lover,'" Jaeger said a bit uncomfortably, Jaeger said, glancing around as he realized what his and Beryl's relative positions might seem like to an onlooker, "I wish Caitlyn would realize that."

Natsuna laughed softly, and gently pulled Beryl over to rest against her instead of Jaeger.

"Thanks," Jaeger said, breathing a sigh of relief as he pulled himself to his feet, then started looking around for a place with properly obscured visibility, eventually settling on the branches of the tree above, "I need to get back, in case someone tries something with a different VIP. I'll come back or send someone to check up on you two sometime soon, hopefully within the hour."

"Thank you," Natsuna said quietly as Jaeger jumped up into the branches and started climbing, "I'll stay as close to Beryl as I reasonably can in the meantime."

Jaeger nodded, then disappeared.

((()))

When Jaeger arrived at Wilds' Academy, he found one of the classrooms had had two of its windows smashed outward; a slightly extra-human jump later, he found Makoto and Queen standing watch over the unconscious form of Wiseman, while Lynette was openly using healing magic to treat a variety of students who had moderate to minor wounds. Usagi was also present, acting as Lynette's aid, while Saeko Mizuno was talking with someone out of sight just outside the classroom's door.

"I have to say," Jaeger said as he stood on the window sill, "This was not what I was expecting to find when I got back."

"Oh, thank God you're here," Lynette said, breathing a sigh of relief as she glanced up from her latest patient, "These girls are almost as bad as you. They _mobbed_ _him under_. He knows _death magic_ and they _mobbed him under._ "

"...Actually possibly the best tactic available to them," Jaeger said, walking over to look down at Wiseman's scorched, shrouded, _pulverized_ form, "If he'd been able to get a spell off, he could have killed everyone in the classroom."

"...Gates-sensei protected us from that," Makoto said, nodding respectfully towards the doctor, "She blocked his magic while we fought him."

"Textbook tactics," Jaeger said, clapping Makoto on the shoulder, and nodding respectfully towards Queen, then smiling at the rest of the students, "Pin them in place, cripple their most powerful abilities, then bring overwhelming force to bear. I wish I had been here to help. No fatalities?"

"Again, we owe Gates-sensei our thanks," Makoto said, nodding towards Lynette again, "She healed Queen and myself multiple times."

"You had not mentioned that you were a Practitioner when you applied for the position," a new voice cut in, as a pair of beautiful young woman wearing matching black dresses stepped into the classroom, apparently finished with their chat with Saeko, "You should have. It would have simplified the hiring process considerably. As it is, Mister Wilds will likely be giving you a substantial raise, as well as a bonus for protecting his students today."

"...You are?" Lynette asked.

"They're Wilds' Guard!" one of the students said excitedly, "Wilds' personal students that he takes on after graduation, and the school's security force!"

"Only the first half of that is true," the newcomer said, shaking her head, "Wilds' Academy does not _have_ a security force. Mister Wilds' has us handle excessively rebellious students from time to time, however."

For a moment, Jaeger considered asking what about _external_ threats; then he looked down at Wiseman's insensate form again. It would be a stupid question.

"Jay Gates," Queen cut in without preamble, "Conflicts in the supernatural world, they are like this often?"

"Bloodier, usually," Jaeger said, glancing around the classroom, "Especially around civilians. It's a testament to how well this school prepares its students that none of you are dead. I wish more people took their own defense as seriously."

"How would you have dealt with him?" Queen asked, poking Wiseman's insensate form with a toe.

"Probably tried to forcibly teleport him away," Jaeger said, abruptly standing directly next to Queen, who scarcely blinked at his abrupt movement, "Then either grappled him to death, electrified him to death, or both."

Queen nodded, but said nothing more.

A series of _cracks_ sounded outside, and Jaeger moved swiftly over to the window, to see that the Praetorians had arrived.

((()))

"Jaeger," Beryl said a bit hesitantly, "Do you think he's right?"

"I don't know," Natsuna said, shaking her head, "I've been looking more into philosophy and religion lately myself, but I don't know. You need to be careful around men like him though."

"Why?" Beryl asked.

"Because he's _not_ just bullshitting," Natsuna said with a sigh, "He actually believes it. With what I've seen so far, that's a good thing, but that kind of passion and charisma is the sort of thing that _can_ turn into a dangerous cult. Consider what he has to say, but don't just believe it because it sounds nice, or because he's persuasive."

Beryl nodded.

((()))

QM's note: ...that was _not_ what was supposed to happen to Wiseman. He was supposed to nab Usagi or chibi-Usagi, and buzz off to the Antarctic to set up the ritual he wanted to do to the Ginzuisho. He's not even a squishy caster; he's a Nemesis user (anti-ki for those not familiar with Anima) and Warlock (caster-fighter hybrid), who had better combat numbers than anybody else in the room. The problem was _there were a lot of other people in the room_ , and Lynette rolled _very_ well to figure out what he was up to, and then kept countering his magic.

It still took a _ridiculous_ number of rounds of combat for them to wear him down, and if Lynette hadn't been able to drop healing spells, Queen at the least would have died, and Makoto seriously injured, which probably would have allowed him to escape. He injured a number of the Wilds' girls, but there were plenty of them (and the determination) for them to just rotate out the wounded person(s) and keep the pressure up. That _one_ spell that Beryl managed to hit him with...

But one of the things about how I write these stories, is that I use rule mechanics to let things go off the rails sometimes. One of the two big showdowns I had planned has been nixed by a swarm of badass schoolgirls, so here's hoping that the one that is still happening (albeit not quite how I expected it to) still makes for a suitable climax. Probably just one chapter and an epilogue left in this story.


	16. Chapter 16

**AN:** Sorry for the delay on this update, I fell asleep like three hours earlier than usual. Also, for those who have _issues_ with Christianity expressed in fiction, you'll want to skip Caitlyn's introspective scene out by the shed. I'm giving those of you who have weird hangups with that a warning, but I'll not be spoilering it, because I am not ashamed of my belief in Christ, and that means expressing it explicitly in my writing from time to time. Which I think this fic is the only one I've done such in.

((()))

"I'm seeing three primary targets," Striker Five said, having taken up position on a building across the street, "Troll, one of the primaries from Borneo, and the vizier. The vizier is down, pretty roughed up, but not dead by how they're treating the body."

"Op plan?" Striker One asked quietly while he, and most of three total Striker teams, grouped up in the school yard.

"Try talking this time," Five said, "But orders are clear. We don't leave without the Borneo girl, and the Vizier either dead or with us. Troll is to be taken if reasonably possible, but we retreat if he starts tearing through us again. Three, you've actually talked with some of them before, you're point for diplomacy."

"...Yes ma'am," Striker Three said after a moment.

"You have a problem with that order?" Five demanded.

"I feel kind of junior for point diplomacy," Three said hesitantly, "Isn't there someone from one of the other two teams with more seniority and some diplo experience?"

"It's _my_ op," Five said flatly, "Not theirs, or yours. Now go follow your orders."

"Yes ma'am," Striker Three said, wincing a bit before racking his weapon, pulling off his helmet, and moving across the school yard towards the classroom with the smashed window.

Several figures watched him from the windows, two of them distinctly unamused, one outright angry.

"Hello there!" Kazinsky called, "We're part of the task force assigned to track the freak in the cloak there down. Was he after the blonde with the huge pig tails?"

"Not shooting first this time?" Asked the only man looking on, and even with the disguised body, his voice was still immediately recognizable to Kazinski, something he figured was probably deliberate.

"I guess Command isn't panicking like they were right after the Borneo event this time," Kazinski said with a shrug, "Either way, we need to bring the freak in for confinement, and his target for questioning relating to the case."

"You're hiding something," the young man said flatly, "You're probably under orders to _try_ talking first, then start shooting if we won't give you what we want, aren't you?"

Kazinski _tried_ to hide his flinch at that, he really did, but he _wasn't trained for diplomacy_ , and Troll was clearly used to reading other people's bullshit.

"How about this," Troll said, floating out the window, and rising slowly to look down at the assorted Strikers spread throughout the school yard, "You all head back to Rome, and tell your bosses that people here are under _my_ protection, and in return, I'll let you take Wiseman with you. A show of trust, if you will."

"Best I think I'm going to get out of him," Kazinski said quietly into his mic.

"Not good enough," Striker Five said flatly, "And _this_ time we _have_ intel and numbers. Push for more."

"Boss wants the girl to come with too," Kazinski said, a bit awkwardly, "Maybe you'd be down with that if you came with?"

"I'm not that stupid," Troll said with a snort, "Counteroffer, leave with Wiseman now, or I'll send my _other_ reply to Rome with your corpses."

Striker Five replied for the Praetorian contingent by opening fire. Just like in Kota Kinabalu, she lead with an anti-material round to Troll's head.

 _Unlike_ Kota Kinabalu, the bullet just mashed itself flat against Troll's psychokinetic screen, and made him _angry_.

Then the rest of the Strikers opened up, gunfire, lightning, and magic lashing against, and in many cases _through_ Troll's defenses, and he fell to the ground. Kazinsky slammed his helmet back down, and fell back to formation with the rest of his team. Once his helmet was properly seated so he could _see_ , and the smoke from their foe's burning flesh cleared, he saw Troll lurching back to his feet.

Part of his neck was missing, buckshot had shredded part of his left bicep, and there wasn't an inch of flesh on his front that wasn't scorched by electricity or magical fire.

"Hard way it is," Troll growled, as his eyes began to glow, back lighting his smoke-stained face.

Then the man _moved_ , blitzing forward almost faster than he could track, and a familiar mixture of Psychic and Electromagnetic energy began to-

" _DOWN!_ " Kazinski barked, already trying to hurl himself to the side.

A strange overlarge metal dart was produced from somewhere on Troll's person, and with a defeaning _**crack**_ it transgressed the Sonic barrier. Even already moving, Kazinski caught the edge of the blast, and his telekinetic shields nearly buckled under the force of the blow, sending him tumbling across the ground until he smacked into the school's boundary wall.

Looking up, he saw that Strikers Two and Four had _not_ moved fast enough, and had been reduced to bits of flesh and gore strewn across the schoolyard. Kazinski grimaced; Troll had _not_ been this powerful the first time they had faced him. He _desperately_ wished he had the authority to call a retreat, especially when he saw the man's wounds already regenerating.

((()))

Makoto leapt down from the classroom at _exactly_ the wrong moment, the shockwave from Jaeger's insane attack knocking her off-balance mid-jump. She recovered well enough to land on her feet, but seeing what his thunderbolt had made of two of the attackers almost made her vomit, and she hesitated.

The rest of the attackers didn't. Gunfire _poured_ into Jaeger, battering through his shields, overwhelming his ability to evade effectively, and began tearing bloody, messy chunks out of his body.

But he didn't go down. There was a hole through the right side of his chest, Makoto could _see_ the sniper on the other side of his body through it, and there was blood _everywhere._

Then Queen leapt forward, landing a flying ax-kick on one of the gunmen in the yard, and Makoto shook off her shock, charging forward again.

((()))

Despite staggering slightly under all the damage he had taken, Troll raised another of his metal darts, and with _**boom**_ every bit as crushing as the first, obliterated Striker Five's position.

"Not this time you bastard," Striker One growled, keeping track of the two suicidally aggressive girls advancing across the courtyard.

They engaged Strikers Six and Seven, and kept them from focusing their firepower on Troll, but it wasn't enough. Striker Eleven continued to close, firing his Shotgun on full auto, _finally_ dropping Troll when one of his legs was severed at the hip by a slug followed up with buchskot.

Striker One approached cautiously, keeping his gun leveled on the target as he gathered Zeon, preparing to cast one of the most basic Destruction spells with as much _oomph_ behind it as he could.

((()))

Lynette was glad to see that while the Wilds' girls might be _aggressive_ , they weren't _stupid._ Makoto and Queen aside, when confronted with a dozen armed and armored men, they immediately began evacuating the classroom, fleeing into the hallway where concrete walls could protect them from gunfire.

And they moved _fast._ By the time Jaeger's attempt to delay the Praetorians was finished, half the class was already out of the room.

Once Jaeger's second railgun attack went off, the few left double-timed it, and Lynette shifted her attention towards the outdoors, beginning to cast a _Flamestrike_ spell, centered on the largest intact cluster of enemies that _weren't_ right on top of her wards.

Just as the spell went off, was when Blaze crashed through the school gate, Caitlyn manning a .50 cal on his turret.

((()))

 _This has all gone to hell in a handbasket,_ Striker Fifteen grumbled to himself as he zeroed in on his next target, then gently squeezed the trigger. The blonde woman _ducked_ , then pivoted her .50 Cal around, and Striker Fifteen hurled himself out of his sniper's nest.

Then two young women in familiar uniforms jumped out of the building into the yard, and engaged Strikers Thirteen and Fourteen.

"To _hell_ ," he growled, before triggering his escape device, and teleporting out.

((()))

Four of the remaining Strikers disappeared, and Striker One snarled, before discharging his spell into Troll's motionless body, as much Destruction magic as he could pack into a spell given so little time.

Troll's body disintegrated, and Striker One crowed in victory, before triggering his own team's bugout function, and disappearing before the crazy blonde could sweep her heavy machine gun fire across his position.

((()))

Queen was not accustomed to fighting foes with body armor. It would have been forbidden in the ring, and the few thugs who'd been foolish enough to pick fights with her were never so well-prepared. She found it frustrating, as in addition to being at a strength and mass disadvantage relative to the soldier she was fighting, she also suffered a _complete_ disparity in the ability to take hits.

When the hostiles started disappearing, she was _more_ than happy to disengage, and allow him to do likewise. This time, victory was found not in subjugating the enemy, but in controlling the field of battle at the end of the day.

"Where's Jaeger?" Caitlyn demanded as soon as the field was clear, though she didn't dismount from the gun turret of her HUMVEE.

Queen glanced towards where the absurdly-durable upperclassman had been moments before, and saw only an undifferentiated mound of dust, or perhaps ash.

Across the yard, she saw Makoto doing likewise, and a moment later, one of the two new school doctors jumped down from the classroom and rushed over to the young man's remains.

((()))

"What happened?" Caitlyn demanded, making one last sweep of the area before hopping out of Blaze's HUMVEE form, and storming across the schoolyard to where Lynette was magically probing the mound of ash that lay where Jaeger had stood.

"The same group as attacked us in Borneo," Lynette said, somewhat distracted, "Jaeger drew their fire away from the classroom while the kids evacuated. They overwhelmed him with sheer weight of fire."

"How bad is it?" Caitlyn said anxiously, glancing around warily, partly in case of lingering foes, partly because she did _not_ want to keep looking at the ash pile.

"Bad," Lynette said with a groan, her diagnostic magics completed, and after a moment's hesitation, she began sifting her fingers through the ash.

For a moment, she ran into something solid, and felt a small surge of hope, but when she pulled it free…

"Jaeger's pendant," Caitlyn whispered, before dropping down beside the pile of ash, "...Come on Lynette, I _know_ you can cast resuscitation spells, and they wouldn't still have been fighting if he'd been down for that long."

"Sure, we're in the golden hour," Caitlyn said grimly, "Even within the duration limit of my spells. But I need a _body_ to work with in order to pull this off, and all that's left is _ash._ "

"Probably deliberate," Blaze rumbled quietly, having rolled over close enough to make sure he didn't miss anything important.

"What do you need to make this work?" Caitlyn asked, a tinge of desperation working its way into her voice.

"...An intact body," Lynette said tiredly.

Caitlyn stared down at the mound of ash for a moment, then looked away.

"Time magic?" she tried, "Roll back time on him by a bit?"

"Relativity is the closest thing to time magic I know about," Lynette said, shaking her head tiredly, "You can _bend_ the flow of time, but you can't _reverse_ it."

"Can you cast something to slow down his effective time, save the golden hour while we look for a proper solution?" Caitlyn asked desperately.

"If time magic exists _at all_ ," Lynette said, slumping a little, "I don't know how to cast it, or where someone who does is. And besides, I don't think warping physics locally would keep a dead man's spirit from-"

" **HE'S NOT DEAD!** " Caitlyn screamed, seizing Lynette by the shoulders, panic in her eyes as she glared at her adoptive mother, "John _never_ dies! He's _unkillable!_ "

"No," Lynette said gently, exhaustion and sorrow coloring her own voice, "He isn't. He was strong, but the way he kept doing nearly-suicidal things like this was part of why I wanted so badly to get to him, before it caught up with him like this. Jaeger _isn't God._ He was harder to kill than most people, but like all of us, mortal in the end."

" _No!_ " Caitlyn shouted, tearing herself away from Lynette to turn and stare down at the disturbed lump of ash, which could only vaguely be said to resemble the outline of a human being.

Fists clenched, her arms and legs trembled, spasms writhing up and down her body as tears poured down her face, patches of white fur sprouting and retracting as she struggled against shifting forms and lashing out at something, _anything._

"Caitlyn," Lynette said gently, "This is part of why he kept trying to point you towards God. He didn't want you relying on _him_ as the reference point you built your life up around. He probably didn't expect to disappoint you like _this_ , but he knew it would happen eventually."

Caitlyn turned back to glare at Lynette, who sighed.

" _Yes_ ," the aging doctor said quietly, "I'm already missing him too. But I don't _need_ him like you've built yourself into, I just _want_ him here. Very badly."

Caitlyn turned and glared down at the pile of ash again, moving to kick it, before hesitating, then whirling and storming off around the corner of the school building to try to find some privacy.

For a few moments, silence largely reigned, while the two members of Wilds' Guard checked over the bodies left in the courtyard, policing weapons and for any form of identification.

"...She cared for him very deeply, didn't she?" Makoto asked quietly, a little lost herself.

"More than she should have," Lynette said, her voice a bit wet as she stood, and turned to reveal a few tears of her own, "Are you injured?"

Makoto shook her head.

"You, Ingui?" Lynette asked, turning towards Queen.

Queen shook her head.

"Then I'd better go get on the phone," Lynette said tiredly, "Our cover is blown, and without Jaeger, there's no way we'll be able to resist a second attempt by whoever shows up next."

((()))

Caitlyn eventually crashed between the outer wall and a storage shed, staring listlessly down into the grass as she struggled between wrapping her mind around what had happened, and refusing to accept it.

"He _can't_ be gone," she whispered hoarsely, "Who will save me now?"

The words poked something in her mind, a memory of the cheesiest, most cliché sort of tracts passed out by wannabe street-preachers she'd run into.

"Are you Saved?" Caitlyn mumbled, rolling over to stare up at the sky, part of her darkly amused at the unnecessary capitalization, "How can _I_ be saved? Where could I find another man like him? Would I _want_ to?"

One of the things she'd been reading just earlier that day came to her mind then, _salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved._

"If you're supposed to be the _savior_ ," Caitlyn voiced bitterly, "Why didn't you save _him?_ "

 _You understand then that he too needed to be saved?_

Caitlyn's whole body jerked as she 'heard' the voice, eyes casting around wildly as she tried to sort out where it came from.

"Telepathy?" she whispered, even as she _knew_ that was not the answer.

Laying still for a few moments, Caitlyn gathered herself and sat upright, her eyes still cast skyward. _Heaven_ ward.

"If you know he needed to be saved," Caitlyn demanded, voice harsh but low, not wanting someone to walk by and hear, "Then why'd you let him die?"

 _Would_ you _deny him the choice to protect those unjustly threatened?_

"Why didn't _you?_ " Caitlyn demanded, "If you're _God_ , and you're _ALMIGHTY_ and _ALL-KNOWING_ , then _why didn't you stop them?_ "

 _I AM slow to anger, long-suffering with the sins of man._

It wasn't said directly, but it didn't need to be. _Including yours._

Caitlyn grimaced, face screwing up as tears started to come again. There were _many_ things she had done she was ashamed of, when she was still a stupid child, when she was lashing out against anyone and everything after she'd been raped…

 _I have given my blood in the covenant, which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins._

"Even creeps like those soldiers that just _attacked a school?_ " Caitlyn demanded, "Like _Knuckles?_ "

 _I AM Love. If a man will repent and humble himself before me, I am faithful and will cleanse him of all unrighteousness._

Caitlyn finished the more direct thought for herself, _including me._

Anger bleeding slowly out of her, Caitlyn slumped against the wall of the shed, staring down at her hands. She'd shed a lot of blood with those hands, sometimes as claws, and she'd just gunned down several more people today, though she was unsure if she'd actually _killed_ them or not. She'd never killed without reason, and she firmly believed that it had been right to kill rather than let someone else (or herself) be killed, but it didn't remove how _wrong_ it was for someone to need to die.

Or how some of the other, far less drastic things that she'd done, had been utterly selfish, and had no redeeming factors to them at all.

"For anything?" she asked quietly.

 _ALL unrighteousness._

"And Jaeger?"

 _In my Father's house, I have prepared a place for him._

Caitlyn nodded faintly, and struggled desperately with something inside of herself for a long, _long_ moment.

"Have a place for me up there too?" she eventually whispered.

 _If a woman will humble herself and repent._

"Jaeger was right," Caitlyn said with a faint laugh, "You don't ask for much, just _everything that actually matters._ "

Silence passed for a time, and while the sensation of the presence of another had angered her before, now she found it comforting. Exhaustion, far more emotional than physical dragged at her, and if she weren't so pent up, she might have fallen asleep. But her heart ate at her, and something ineffable tugged at her.

"I'm sorry," she eventually said quietly, "For everything."

The words had an immense wealth of meaning behind them, more than Caitlyn knew _how_ to express with words, and rolled up into them was a simple plea: _please save me._ Something eased, some barrier between her and the presence lowering.

 _Take Lynette,_ the voice commanded gently, _And go to John's workshop, and do so with haste._

Nodding faintly, Caitlyn pulled herself to her feet, finding herself surprisingly light, and jogged off to find her mother.

((()))

When Caitlyn asked her to go to Jaeger's workshop _now_ , Lynette complied readily. It was hard to pack them all into Blaze, but the various Senshi came with, some vague intention to comfort the women who were far closer to their most recent guardian than any of them had been driving them. The house wasn't empty when they arrived, Usagi's parents having returned from their outing.

Caitlyn led them all up to Jaeger's workshop, which was in theory also his bedroom, though he usually ended up sleeping in the living room as a cat. There, they found the magical simulacrum that Jaeger had been using to keep projects going in his absence.

"...This," Lynette said, brow furrowing as she studied the ugly pseudo-human, "This isn't a person. It's an empty shell, controlled by… Out. All of you. I have magic to do."

Caitlyn wordlessly herded the younger girls out, then pulled the doorway mostly shut, and watched through the crack as Lynette furiously began rearranging the room in preparation for a ritually-cast spell, with the puppet at the center of it.

It took long, _long_ minutes for the spell to be cast, and as it progressed, a wash of light began to envelope the body, bursting into a blinding flash at the spell climaxed. Caitlyn furiously tried to blink away the glowing spots in her eyes, but refused to look way from the center of the workshop.

When the light and her vision had cleared, there she saw Jaeger.

Not as a cat.

Not as a shapeshifted polynesian-looking young man, as he had disguised himself around Wilds'.

Not as she had known him in Chicago and England, scarred, with flesh mottled and discolored from magics.

A young man, whole and hearty, free of scars and in the prime of his life stood in the middle of the room, staring down at his hands in wonder.

" _Human_ again," he whispered quietly, " _Thank_ you Lord."

A fierce cry of joy erupted from Caitlyn's throat, and she hurled herself into the room, slamming Jaeger to the ground in a flying tackle-hug.

((()))

"That's so cute!" Usagi giggled as she peered around the doorframe at Jaeger awkwardly trying to relax Caitlyn's grip enough that he could _breathe_ without upsetting her.

" _Shhh!_ " Minako hissed, her voice a low whisper, "Don't interrupt the moment, or he might start being stupid with her again!"

"You really think he'd do that at this point?" Makoto asked quietly.

"Boys are _dumb!_ " Minako whispered back, "Einstein said stupidity is one of the things that's unlimited!"

"Actually," Ami said quietly, a small smile on her face, "It's _human_ stupidity that Einstein said was infinite."

"Same thing!" Minako whispered with some irritation.

((()))

"Hello, Miss Sakurada," a cultured and faintly familiar voice called, and Natsuna looked up from her coffee to see Nephrite, looking _different_ but quite handsome in a top-quality suit, "Could I trouble you for a few minutes of your time?"

"Certainly," Natsuna said, setting aside the (frustratingly short on information) newspaper she had been reading, "I can't imagine anything you came all the way from Congo for wouldn't be worthy my time."

"My dear," Nephrite said with a charming smile as he sat down across from her, and making a gesture that muted the sounds of the small park they were in, "One such as yourself is _always_ worth my time. This particular visit, however, comes as I have had word from Lady Beryl that you have recently come to be between employment."

"That would be true," Natsuna said, "And this is of interest to you because?"

"I am in the process of reforming a _desperately_ corrupt legal system," Nephrite said, smiling wanly, "Which is a difficult task at the best of times. Given what I saw of your character during the battle in Kota Kinabalu, I'd be interested in recruiting you on your character and determination alone. Given that you are also an experienced and _competent_ administrator and law enforcement officer, I would be hard-pressed to find a candidate that more ideally suited my needs."

"I see," Natsuna said, raising an eyebrow at the foreign, in terms of both place and time, man, "What sort of compensation package do you offer? It is no small task you ask, and that's before you even get into me needing to move from my homeland, and learn at _least_ one new language to effectively carry out the involved responsibilities."

"I pay _very_ well," Nephrite said, his smile growing slowly, "For mages on the level of myself and my compatriots, material wealth is a nigh-infinite quantity. More saliently, as we re-develop the infrastructure and scholastic systems for the mystic arts, techniques for slowing aging by roughly a factor of four. It is unfortunate that you lack The Gift for magecraft, or we could teach you techniques for defeating aging altogether. And, of course, service to the Crown of the level I am asking is customarily rewarded with a Title and estates of your own, the size and value thereof depending upon the quality of service."

"That's quite the offer," Natsuna said, "I find myself positively inclined, but will of course need more information on the full scope of the task, and time to consider."

"As I would expect of someone who knew what they were doing," Nephrite said with a nod, reaching inside of his suit jacket to withdraw a large folder that shouldn't really have fit within, "Here is what I have been able to gather thus far on the current legal code and police system. And here," he withdrew a small golden bracelet,"Is a device by which you may contact me when you have an answer. Simply put it on, and I will be aware that you wish to speak with me; it will also serve to let me locate you then."

"I see," Natsuna said, picking up the slender bracelet to examine, "You said you spoke with Beryl. How was she doing?"

"She seemed worn," Nephrite said, rising to his feet as he spoke, "And was on her way to speak with Jaeger about what had become of Wiseman since he was driven off. You have become friends with her?"

"Yes," Natsuna said with a nod, "And I tend to feel rather protective of those who have been under the care of myself and my men."

"An admirable attitude," Nephrite said with a nod, "I would love to stay and chat, but as I have said, I have a great deal of work ahead of me. I hope to hear from you soon, Miss Sakurada."

"You will," Natsuna said, nodding respectfully to the man, "Goodbye, your highness."

"Goodbye, Miss Sakurada."

((()))

"So," Jaeger said the next day, when they were all seated in the duplex's conjoined living room, "Blaze has the summary of the current situation, after which, we'll need to make some pretty important decisions moving forward. Blaze?"

"On it," Blaze said, his voice emerging from a device on the coffee table in the middle of the circle of humans.

Lights flickered, then a hologram coalesced above the device, depicting an unconscious, heavily-battered man.

"This is 'Wiseman,'" Blaze said, "The provocateur behind the Black Moon Clan. According to information from Jaeger, as well as my own sources, the Black Moon Clan surrendered to Nephrite, who gathered his three comrades in arms to bring them down. The footage I have isn't the best, but it looks like Wiseman tried to kill Demande when he accepted Nephrite's terms of surrender."

The holographic display switched to a pair of images of Beryl, one with red-hair and garish clothing, the other with black hair, wearing a labcoat.

"Fujiwara Beryl," Blaze continued, "Former possession victim of Metallia, who was the monster-of-the-week trying to destroy the Earth, which is what lead up to the Borneo Event. For anyone unfamiliar, the 'Borneo Event' is the term used by the veiled community for the side-effects of Usagi's wish that stopped Metallia, wiping memory and many effects of magic from the world, and provoking the attack on our group at Kota Kinabalu."

The hologram shifted again, this time to show many separate perspectives of the three Striker teams that had attacked Wilds' Academy.

"Striker teams, from the Praetorians," Blaze continued, "One of the 'heavyweights' of the veiled world, and definitely the group with the heaviest weight of egos. They're based in Rome, and see themselves as the 'last standing' remnant of the Roman Empire, complete with their own senate and 'branch' of the Roman Catholic Church. This-"

The image switched to display a large walled compound nestled in an upscale and spacious residential neighbourhood.

"Is the compound the Praetorians are based out of. I'm calling it 'Target Alpha,' personally. This-"

A large palace built atop a river replaced the Praetorian compound.

"Is Nephrite's current residence. He's currently the King of the Congo, and was doing just fine at fending off assassination attempts _before_ he got his buddies and the Black Moon Clan backing him up. This-"

The image changed to a somewhat aged, but well-maintained building that could have been on the street of any city built in the 19th century with English signage.

"Is 'The Eggshell.' Within the veiled community it's the official office for meeting with the American magical community. This-"

The image shifted to a pleasant-looking tropical island, with something straddling the boundary between hill and mountain at its center.

"Is the fallback residence Lynette has prepared for the lot of us. I'm calling it 'Beach Day.'"

"Thank you Blaze," Jaeger said, shifting a bit to get Caitlyn to stop leaning on him, then leaning forward and looking each of those present in the eye in sequence, "So, as best I've been able to gather, we have a few options available to us at this point:

"First, we can fall back to Lynette's contingency site, and go into _serious_ hiding. With transmutation and other magics, we'd have probably one night of camping on the beach, before we had modern-equivalent dwellings prepared. We would, however, be _very_ cut off from the rest of the world, as regular teleportation to and from the island would make it a _lot_ easier to find. This is the least-messy option, but involves the most sacrifices on the part of everyone here.

"Second, we can ask Nephrite for protection. He'd probably ask for us to become sworn subjects, much as a classical king, or sworn allies.

"Third, we can go to the Americans. They'd probably give all of you Asylum without asking much of most of you, but Usagi and younger Usagi would be living under microscopes, given the sheer magnitude of power they can potentially wield."

"And they'd _definitely_ conscript Jaeger," Caitlyn threw in, "He's not from _this_ America, but they'd definitely stuff him into the military under laws about the draft."

"True," Jaeger said with a nod, "And the last option, is to try to switch from being pieces on the board, to players. With how the Praetorians have _refused_ to accept anything but total surrender to their demands, the plan would be to hit them, and hit them _hard_ , destroying their power base, and flatly put, killing enough of their active military strength, to remove them from the big leagues, and use that as a statement of intent to anybody else who decides that they can use us as game pieces. Obviously, this is the most dangerous and bloodiest option."

"How many of the Praetorians are there?" Makoto immediately asked, "How hard would we have to hit them to scare them?"

"They're secretive about how many active members they have," Blaze replied, "Both as 'citizens,' and as active combat strength. They're not like the street gangs you've fought before, where you can just take out their boss and some of his guys and scare the rest."

"I know," Makoto said bluntly, "But every thug has _some_ point where they get scared and call it quits, and from what I saw, they're a bunch of thugs."

"Thugs with military discipline," Jaeger said, "And a weight of culture and history they think is pushing them on. We'd _have_ to hit their facilities in Rome in order to break that, and score a completely unambiguous win. Blaze, what is your _guess_ on how much active strength they have?"

"The Praetorians," Blaze replied, "Before the Borne Event, said they had 'more than One Century' of troops ready to field. Based on what's been up since, I'd say they have at _least_ fifty active."

"And we have _maybe_ a half-dozen peer combatants," Jaeger said, shaking his head, "Not our best option."

"How big is that facility?" a new voice cut in, causing several of those present to start violently.

Beryl faded slowly into view, a tired smile on her face. Jaeger looked her up and down a question on his face; she leaned in and passed him a few words unheard by others, and he nodded silently, clapping her reassuringly on the shoulder.

"A few hundred meters to a side," Blaze replied after a few moments, "Why?"

"Because I have something that can deal with that," Beryl said, her smile fading, "And in point of fact, a way for dealing with this whole situation. I may have been born a peasant, but I _did_ rise to the rank of Court Sorceress, and I know how these games are played."

"We're all ears," Lynette said, smiling faintly at the (seemingly) younger woman, "What's this plan of yours?"

((()))

Rome was a beautiful city; Jaeger had seen the tourist traps before, on a different world, in a different life, but he found he preferred the parts of the city the locals actually lived in. He felt a little out of sorts in the fancier neighborhood he was walking into, but he had _some_ experience visiting upscale parts of town.

He was dressed perhaps a bit casually, but not enough so that any of the pedestrians paid him any particular mind. At least, not until he began to near the Praetorians' primary compound. There, a perimeter of subtle sentries noticed him, and he noticed them noticing him. Thus, it came as no surprise when a snappily-dressed security guard intercepted him a good ten paces short of the compound's gate.

"Excuse me," the man said, "But who are you, and what is your business here?"

"Around here I am known as 'Troll,'" Jaeger said with a shrug and a smirk, "And I'm here to demand recompense for grievance. Thrice now the Praetorians have attacked me and mine, refusing negotiation, and generally acted the part of murderous barbarians. I will have repayment, or I shall raise this place to the ground."

The guard kept his eyes tight on Jaeger, his hand on his sidearm, and said nothing, his expression revealing little. Jaeger respected the man's discipline, and decided to get him out of the blast radius if it was reasonably possible. His hearing was also sharp enough to catch what was coming over the wire in the guard's ear.

"Pull back," a familiar voice ordered, "Striker Teams on approach."

Jaeger was content to wait, and a few minutes later, the guard was behind the walls, and Striker One, clad in full combat kit, stepped out to stare him down.

"I _killed_ you," Striker One ground out, "I turned your _body to ash!_ "

"Yeah, I get that a lot," Jaeger said, tossing his head a little and snorting dismissively, "So, I've given you your three chances, and each time you tried to murder me and murder or kidnap those under my protection. I'm _done_ playing nice, and it is clear that at this point leaving you intact as players capable of striking around the world would just be asking for more of the same. So, will you surrender yourselves for trial for war crimes, or are we doing this the hard way?"

"The Praetorian Order does not accept ultimatums from _anyone_ ," Striker One growled, "Especially not those who've been killing our people."

"I really would prefer to avoid bloodshed," Jaeger said, shaking his head sadly, "But if you do not surrender, I _will_ leave this compound completely leveled."

"Counter-offer," Striker One said, clearly not happy with what he was saying, "You surrender the vizier, the girl, and the woman, and we guarantee none but the vizier will be slain."

"If your word was worth anything," Jaeger said, "I might consider it. Last chance, surrender or face total destruction."

By way of response, Striker One silently stepped back into the compound, not turning his back on Jaeger for a moment. Jaeger sighed, shook his head, then disappeared.

Surprise rolled through the various Strikers who had taken up concealed firing positions along the wall; they'd detected not a _whit_ of magic, ki, or Psychic power as he disappeared. None of them paid particular attention to the sedan with out-of-country plates parked further down the street.

 _Thump._

The ground trembled slightly, and attention immediately was turned fully outward once more.

 _Thump._

"Summoning?" Striker twenty-one asked quietly over the comm line.

"Doesn't fit displayed abilities," Striker One said, "If he's got some sort of colossus, it'd be a construct."

 **Thump.**

"Contact!" Striker eighteen called, "Down Aviedos lane, something-

 **Thump thump thump** _ **thumpthumpthumpTHUMP.**_

.

Blued armor alloys reflecting the sun brilliantly, the enormous mecha charged the compound, a glow building in its mouth. The various Strikers opened fire, spells and enchanted shells raining down on the war machine's ki-infused armor; only a single shell penetrated, and to no discernible effect.

The glowing mouth opened, and a thunderbolt erupted forth, tearing over the top of the wall, into the compound, where _something_ erupted, and a chain of eruptions of unreality swept outwords, _vaporizing_ structures and soldiers alike.

A long moment of jarring near-silence passed, the sound of debris falling here and there contrasting the thunderclap and gunfire that had preceded it.

The silence was interrupted by some foolishly courageous soul firing on the steel cat again.

The mecha fired a second shot, slamming into one of the far corners of the compound, then retargeted and just seconds later fired a _third._

Long seconds passed, and no more gunfire came forth; unsurprising, given that for all intents and purposes, there no longer _was_ a compound, every structure reduced almost wholly to ash, with only three small chunks of the perimeter wall and part of the small hospital still standing.

Telekinetic force reached out as the 'mech strode into the ruined compound, ignoring the few survivors that had fallen here and there, and purposefully knocked over each segment of the perimeter wall that remained upright.

" **Consider this a mercy,** " a processed voice called from the 'mech, as the few survivors in the remnant of the hospital were removed via telekinesis, before that structure too was leveled, " **You were warned. If you do not let this be the end of the war** _ **you**_ **declared upon me, I shall pursue the last of you to the ends of the earth and beyond.** "

Then the 'mech disappeared.

((()))

In the tenth sub-basement of the UN building in New York, a floor most who worked there would give you an odd look for implying existed, dignitaries from around the world were gathering. Unlike in the 'mundane' world, these dignitaries were not simply career politicians or diplomats. In the world behind the veil, too much of one's respect and influence came from personal ability for that.

The _least_ skilled and potent amongst those present, the Australian representative, had enough power and skill to tear the entire structure over their head to the ground in less than a quarter hour. For the most powerful present, a Wu Jen from Taiwan, it would have taken _seconds._ All gathered had some capacity to sense the power of others, though only a dozen or so of mixed-talents could sense more than _just_ magic, or ki, or psychic might, it was enough that all knew they stood amongst either peers, or those only a step or two removed therefrom.

"Thank you for coming," the American representative said, standing once all expected were present, "I called you here to share information gathered on the cause of the Borneo Event, something all of us have been extremely interested in since its effects struck us all some months ago."

"Where are the Romans?" the French representative asked, "Were they not amongst the first to respond to the situation proactively?"

"Yes," the American representative said, nodding a bit grimly, "And the manner of response is a large part of why, at request, they are not represented here today. To explain all of this, I will yield the floor to Sorceress Fujiwara Beryl."

A murmur ran through the crowd as Beryl entered the conference chamber, resplendent in a luxurious kimono of a style favored by the Japanese Imperial Family, her hair done up elaborately, her eyes sweeping dispassionately across the assembled delegates.

"I am one of two primary surviving figures involved in causing the Borneo Event," she declared, "And earlier this week, I was one of two involved in eradicating the primary military strength of the Praetorians."

A second, larger murmur rolled through the crowd at that.

"The memory effects of the Borneo Event were ultimately accidental," Beryl said, shaking her head, "A young practitioner, inexperienced in the craft, found herself pressed into battle, and made somewhat haphazard use of a bound family artifact to destroy the Incarnae Metallia, avatar of Hunger. In undoing the works of the creature, this practitioner over-extended their power, resulting in the memory block effect you are all aware of. This-"

She withdrew a scintillating gem, masterfully cut, from within her sleeve, and placed it on the podium that lay at the center of the chamber, "Is the artifact so-used. This time, and at this time _only_ , it is being made available for you all to inspect, that you may see it is keyed to creation, restoration, and healing magic, and intended for the purposes one would expect of such a device. It functions as both a focus, and a battery, storing immense amounts of mana for later use.

"The inheritor, now that they are capable of making use of it, has chosen to take up healing, and will be emptying its building charge at weekly intervals. Both the display of it in the here and now, and this regular healing activity, are being done to reassure all of you that there will _not_ be a repeat of the Borneo Event.

"As the other primary involved party, I do not boast when I say I eclipse any and all of you in proficiency with the mystic arts. To use the modern term, I am a 'hermit,' I concern myself primarily with research, and I am well over a thousand years old."

At _that_ revelation, the room went silent.

"It took a threat to all present on the Earth to pull me from my seclusion," Beryl continued, sweeping her gaze across the assembly again, "And while I was temporarily diminished after fending it off, the Praetorians sought to take advantage of my exhaustion to capture me by force. Thrice in succession, they attacked without provocation, refused to respond to attempts to negotiate, and attempted to kill those who stood against them. In order to discourage further childishness of such a nature, they have been thoroughly chastised.

"However, I do understand the _concern_ that drove their actions, even if the way they tried to ameliorate said concerns was reprehensible. The Borneo Event represented a threat to the entirety of veiled society, and as such, people understandably desire assurances that a repeat will not occur. This is why the artifact has been made available now, and in tandem with my own concerns for my safety, is why I am here to announce that I am currently 'recruiting' for personal protection.

"I invite each of you two send up to two individuals of trustworthy character to join my personal protection detail. In this way, all may be assured that I am not scheming nefarious deeds, while I may be protected against those foolish enough to attempt to coerce me into working towards their own ends. Do be warned though, that should a given nation's thusly-sent representative attempt violence upon my person unprovoked, I will treat this as an act of war, and respond as I did with the Praetorians."

"Thank you for listening; that is all that I have to say for the time being."

So saying, Beryl effortless conjured a comfortable chair, and seated herself beside the Ginzuisho to await the assembled delegates responses.

((()))

 **AN:** So, very relevant; Beryl was actually the one doing the heavy offensive lifting in the attack on the Praetorian compound. She was riding aboard the 'mech too, and whereas Jaeger's railgun attack is pretty powerful, the enchantments the Praetorians put on their walls would either have stopped it outright, or eaten the vast majority of its force.

Beryl, on the other hand, was casting the level 82 High Magic spell Rain of Destruction, placed to look like a 'detonate on impact' aspect of Jaeger's railgun attack, which has an AoE and damage starting at 'insta-gib mid-tier characters,' and working up from there. You have to use conventional defense, _and_ a resistance check against that spell, and take damage from _both_ if you don't roll high enough. And Beryl has _crazy-high_ roll-modifiers. She's the highest level character in the fic after Wiseman.

Epilogue later today or on Sunday hopefully; I have some scenes already going into it, but if you feel there's some plot thread or another that is _desperately_ needing a bit more attention before the next installation, feel free to comment on the thread and I may add another scene for it. I know what's obvious to me is _not_ always obvious to my readers.


	17. Epilogue

**AN: Here's the Epilogue, such as it is. I feel like there's at least one more scene that should be here, but I can't think of what it is. And yes,** ** _some_** **plot threads are left more open deliberately, due to them being the realm of sequel, rather than epilogue.**

((()))

"I must say," Nephrite smiled between sips of tea, "I wasn't expecting such a bold presentation from you."

"Something struck me after listening to the words of that young warrior," Beryl replied, studying her own cup of tea contemplatively, "That even if I'm not ready to forgive myself for my part in the end of our era, I _know_ I could not forgive myself if I stood by while _this_ era fell to such a catastrophe as our own did. Whether that be due to infighting, or another spawn of Chaos, such as Wiseman. What did you do with that thing, anyways?"

"He's under a sealing effect," Nephrite said, grimacing a little, "Even with that odd essence-inverting spell you afflicted him with, he still appears to be immune to death via the means at our disposal. It's a shame the Ginzuisho will not be able to gain enough charge for the task any time soon."

"I'll look into another means to dispose of him," Beryl said, sighing and shaking her head, "And speaking of research, I have a request of you."

"Yes," Nephrite said, smiling graciously, "You may set up a full sanctum within my lands. I have a list of appropriate sites already compiled, though I'll not be telling you where I've placed my own facilities. I simply ask you retain the old protocols in regards to risky spell experiments."

"Of course," Beryl said, nodding with a ghost of a smile, "What sort of payment will you require?"

"Given I doubt you'll accept a Ducal title and responsibility for the surrounding lands," Nephrite replied, pausing for a moment as Beryl shook her head, "Then I'll settle for either teaching one class per year in advanced magics once I have my Mage's Academy operational, or three 'Consult and Casts' per year."

"Non-military only," Beryl stipulated, "For the same reason I will not accept a title from you."

"Politics," Nephrite said disdainfully, "Sometimes I miss being a junior officer. By the way, I believe you've met my new High Justicar."

Beryl tilted her head and raised an eyebrow at the general-cum-king, leaving the question unspoken.

"Lady Sakurada?" Nephrite called.

Natsuna Sakurada entered the small parlor, clad in a uniform clearly derived from Nephrite's own, complete with cape.

"Hello Beryl," the Japanese woman said, "Please tell him that this outfit looks _ridiculous_ on me."

((()))

"Feeling regret?" the painfully-generic handler Kazinski had been assigned asked.

"Yeah," Kazinski said, sighing as he looked over pictures of the ruins of the compound the Strikers used to live in, "But more regret that it came to this, than for my part in it."

The handler gave no response, looking through some of the images of the leveled buildings himself.

"You know," Kazinski said, sighing, "I'd read stories where characters talked about it before, but I'd never thought that it would be through _rising to the ranks of the elite_ , that I'd realize my people had betrayed me. Rome used to _mean something._ Maybe some day it will again."

"You don't want to take a hand in that?"

"They'd kill me if they knew I'd survived," Kazinski said with a sigh, "It's not like I didn't warn the rest, but who listens to the rookie?"

((()))

"This is amazing!" Usagi said, bouncing in her seat as she read over her report card, "I passed everything!"

Ami looked at the girl, a little shocked that Usagi would be so excited just about _passing_ , in spite of how much she'd seen of the girl's academic abilities during the semester of de-facto tutoring her they'd just ended. Then she carefully tucked away her own report card.

"I got two A's this time!" Minako said happily, "My parents'll raise my allowance when they hear!"

"That's awesome!" Usagi said happily, "How did everyone else do?"

"B's and C's," Makoto said with a shrug, "Like usual. I was hoping for an A in history, but I think my Korean writing wasn't good enough for that yet."

"My father would consider anything less than a B unacceptable," Rei said, shaking her head slightly, "The academic rigor here is a little higher than I was accustomed to, but it was still manageable."

"How about you Ami?" Usagi asked brightly, turning her thousand-watt smile on the shyest member of their group.

Ami blushed and looked away.

"All A's I assume," Rei said offhandedly, before taking a sip of tea, "I'm quite confident that you got a hundred on each of your finals."

"Ninety-nine on the Korean language test," Ami said shyly.

"That's amazing Ami!" Usagi said, hopping around the table to trap the bluenette a hug, "I bet you'll be an even better doctor than your mother when you grow up!"

"That's an excellent point," Rei said, setting aside her tea cup, then meeting the gaze of each of the other girls in turn, "What will we all do when we've graduated?"

"I'll be joining the Gates' adventuring team," Makoto said with a grin, "Whatever it is they're doing."

"Let's not have that argument again," Minako said hastily, butting in before Rei could respond, "I'm going to get a work-study program from Natsuna, and become a detective."

"That _would_ move you all the way to Congo," Rei said, glaring at Makoto for a moment before turning to look at the blonde, "Are you sure you're up for that?"

"I've got two years to learn the languages they speak there," Minako said with a grin, "And do you think there's anyone else I could get such a good internship from? No way!"

"I'm going to be a voice actress!" Usagi declared, "Then a real actress once people realize how awesome I am!"

"You're going to get typecast _hard_ ," Minako said with a smirk, "Bubbly ditzy blonde, _every time._ "

"So?" Usagi said, smirking slyly at the other girl, "It'll just be super easy and fun that way! We all know Ami's going to whatever medical school her mother recommends-"

"I have to get an undergraduate degree first," Ami interjected.

"-After undergraduate school," Usagi continued, turning her gaze on Rei with a fierce grin, "Are you ready to admit you don't want us all splitting up and leaving you lonely again yet?"

Rei blushed furiously.

"I-I will be keeping the Hino shrine once its restoration is complete, of course," she said, desperately trying not to stammer, "All of you had better come and visit regularly!"

"Of course!" Usagi said, diving across the room to tackle-hug Rei, who of course protested and tried to push the younger girl off.

She didn't try _quite_ hard enough to succeed, though.

((()))

"Alright," Beryl said, taking a calming breath as she gathered mana for her first attempt at the new spell on a human subject, "This has had no averse effects on animal testing, but it will most likely feel quite bizarre."

"I understand," the volunteer, one of the mid-teens Congolese orphans Nephrite had hand-picked for this project, said, "And you want a full description of the sensation afterwards, yes?"

"Correct," Beryl said with a nod, "Now hold still."

Unlike with the first 'dry run,' he did not nod in response, simply standing at the center of the spell diagram Beryl had prepared. Beryl closed her eyes, and _breathed_ in the mana of the world around her, focusing her mind along two trails in a feat beyond any who lacked years of dedicated training.

One train of thought followed along hundreds of gene pairs, the results of her studies into the human genome project; the other envisioned and prepared metaphysical structures and anchors, hybridizing knowledge of magic gained from both the Silver Millenium, and what Metallia had puppeted her to use while she was possessed.

Hands and words flowing deftly in well-practiced execution, Beryl let the mana flow out from her, from her soul and mind both, moving with her breath and shaped by her soul, mind, and body, into the young man in front of her.

Energy flowed smoothly, sinking into and fusing with flesh, bone, organs and brain, then with something that lay beyond the mere physical shell, joining with the young man's spirit, and connecting it with physical and metaphysical reality in a way it had not been before.

Beryl opened her eyes to see the glow of Zeonic light fading, the young man apparently unharmed, breathing freely and easily.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

"Well," he said, opening his eyes and meeting hers with a smile, "It tingled, and felt very… _intimate_ , but not in an unpleasant way… Your gaze, you look at me like a worried mother does after a child, yes?"

"...Something like that," Beryl said, blinking as she expanded her gaze into the metaphysical, studying the way mana flowed around and through him now, "If this functioned correctly, the effects should be permanent. Your spirit should now be capable of shaping mana just as any naturally born to The Gift, and your mind has been augmented to work it more ably. Here, take my hand."

She raised her right hand, and he gently took it between both of his.

"Now, I will try to push some of my mana to you," she said, "If you can feel it, try to pull it in. If you can manage this, then you can be taught to cast spells."

He nodded, and concentrated on where their hands joined. After a moment, a faint pink glow rose around her hand, then slowly flowed over to his, and began to sink in.

Beryl smiled.

((()))

"I owe you an apology," Jaeger said quietly.

Caitlyn glanced over at Jaeger, before turning back towards the pending sunrise and taking a sip of her hot chocolate.

"Experiencing your own mortality has a way of making you looking at things a different way," Jaeger continued, draining his own mug before setting it on the rooftop beside him, "And I've realized I've been dishonest with both myself and you."

Caitlyn looked back towards Jaeger, taking another sip to cover any potential need to reply.

"While none of the reasoning I gave you for why I've avoided a relationship with you has been _false_ ," Jaeger continued, "It has been _incomplete._ With some more perspective, I've realized a significant part of why I have denied you is _fear._ Fear of opening myself up, and then being rejected. Fear, ultimately, that no-one will ever Love me as I _am_ , rather than as they want me to be. That fear has, over the years, made my responses to your advances more _adversarial_ than they needed to be, and I'm sorry for that."

Caitlyn took another sip of her hot chocolate, then decided to drain the rest of it in one long draught, before setting her mug aside and looking Jaeger in the eye before she responded.

"A _perfectly valid_ fear," Caitlyn said with a faint smile, reaching over to lay a hand on Jaeger's shoulder, "Because that was a huge part of what I was actually doing. I _was_ trying to find god in my relationship with you, and that wasn't fair to you. It took losing you to realize that yes, I _was_ defining myself relative to you in unhealthy ways. It looks like you were right about God having a way of asking for what is most important, even, or maybe _especially_ if it's the last thing we want to give up. I'm sorry for that."

Jaeger smiled, and for the first time in many months, leaned over and initiated a hug with her.

"Thank you for being patient with me," He said.

"And thank you for being patient with me," Caitlyn replied with a faint smile, "I'm going to take some time to sort my head and heart out a bit, but don't be surprised if I ask you to go out with me again in a few months."

"I won't be," Jaeger said, "Maybe I'll actually say yes for a change."

((()))

"Hello, Usa."

Usagi (the younger) looked up from her lunch, and frowned slightly as she saw the girl who had addressed her.

"You look familiar," she said slowly, "But I don't remember why."

"You probably know a much older version of me," the girl said, smiling broadly, "I'm Nehellenia."

"Aunt Nelly!" Usagi said, eyes widening, "How did you get here? I thought you were out-system when..."

"When whatever happened in the future caused you to come back?" Nehellenia asked when the girl trailed off.

Usagi nodded.

"I probably was," Nehellenia said with a shrug, "I'm from this time period, so I only know who you are by sensing your aura. Do you know what I am?"

"You're my mother's past-mother's mirror something," Usagi half-said, half-asked.

"I was her reflection in the Fade," Nehellenia said with a nod, "Few individuals are potent enough to cast a strong reflection, and even then, I'd never have come to be what I am, if not for two things. The first, was an entity you know as Chaos implanting a form of Star Seed within me, giving me substance, and attempting to turn me into a _living_ reflection of your sort-of grandmother, opposed to her in every way.

"The second," Nehellenia said with a faint smile, "Is the combination of your arrival poking a whole in the barrier between material reality and the Fade, and your mother's wish with ten thousand years of charge in the Ginzuisho backing it reshaping my nature into something much more _human._ For that, the two of you have my thanks."

"...You're welcome?" Usagi said.

'Nelly's' smile broadened, and she leaned over to hug the slightly-older girl.

"Rather than something wholly detached," Nehellenia continued, "I exist now as a being between worlds. If you ever find yourself in need of help, and none of your other friends or allies can respond, break this-"

She handed Usagi a hair clip.

"-And I'll come as quickly as I can to help you. It will only break if you deliberately try to break it, so don't worry about breaking it by accident."

"...Thank you?" Usagi said, studying the hair clip hesitantly, resolving to have Lynette, Ami, and Rei look it over before she started wearing it.

"You're welcome," Nehellenia said, "You'll see me from time to time, even if you don't use it, but I have other things that need my attention, and Dimi is too lonely to just let live alone. Before I go, could you tell Jaeger something for me?"

Usagi nodded.

"Tell him that some other form of creature has been disturbing the dimensional barriers around here," Nehellenia said, "I'll be investigating, but it's something he probably wishes to be aware of."

And then the young girl's form slowly faded out of sight.

((()))

((()))

 **AN: So. I have a up now. I have one completed story I'll start posting here on soon (An Alpha Centauri/Mass Effect crossover, comedy and crack. The original few chapters are in The Blender, it'll be getting its own separate posting now.), and I have a RWBY story in the works that I should have the first arc for completed, and start posting by the end of the month. Apologies again for lapsing on the posting schedule for this; as you can see, I decided to just post the rest in one big lump since I apparently wasn't up to being disciplined with it.**


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